Céline and Julie Go Boating & Paris Nous Appartient

[Feego]

Presto chango:

[spectre]

Great! A nice contrast to the DVD cover, now.

[pzadvance]

yikes... not a fan of that!

[Bumstead]

Shouldn't this go in the Worst Covers thread?

[TMDaines]

Reminded me of the Bridget Jones posters right away for some reason.

[swo17]

Eh, I like it. The magician cover is played out, and this makes them look like they're boating the streets of Paris.

[Finch]

I like the new one better as well.

[spectre]

Plus, Dominique Labourier is on the cover now too!

My favourite C+J DVD cover is the French one, which makes it seem like some wacky children’s animation:

[dfzp]

^I think that's the original poster.
The new BFI cover is based on the poster for the theatrical re-release in France last year, you can see it here:
http://www.filmsdulosange.fr/fr/film/38 ... -en-bateau

[domino harvey]

Doesn't even look like Juliet Berto

[Feego]

We're basically looking at a mirror image of Berto since they flipped her around from the original picture:

[pzadvance]

is it also colorized from that b&w photo? dear god.

what are the odds BFI would include a reversible sleeve?

[MichaelB]

what are the odds BFI would include a reversible sleeve?

Based on precedent, zero.

[Michael Kerpan]

Looks like one will need to slip in a home-made replacement cover. Just ghastly (including the typography). Where is peerpee when we (desperately) need him?

The French DVD cover was MUCH better.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

Céline and Julie Go Boating

Directed by Jacques Rivette

BFI Blu-ray release of new restoration on 20 November 2017

Céline and Julie Go Boating, Jacques Rivette’s biggest commercial hit, is an exhilarating examination of the themes of theatricality, paranoia and la vie Parisienne, all wrapped up in an extended and entrancing exploration of the nature of filmmaking (and film-watching). Previously released by the BFI on DVD, it now comes to Blu-ray, in a new restoration, on 20 November 2017. Special features include a new feature length commentary by Adrian Martin.

Céline (Juliet Berto), a magician, and Julie (Dominique Labourier), a librarian, meet in Montmartre and wind up sharing the same flat, bed, fiancé, clothes, identity and imagination. Soon, thanks to a magic sweet, they find themselves spectators, then participants, in a Henry James-inspired ‘film-within-the-film’ – a melodrama unfolding in a mysterious suburban house with the ‘Phantom Ladies Over Paris’ (Bulle Ogier and Marie-France Pisier), a sinister man (Barbet Schroeder) and his child.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition;
• A newly commissioned feature length commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin (2017);
• Jonathan Romney on Rivette and Céline and Julie Go Boating (2006, 19 mins);
• Toute la mémoire du monde (Alain Resnais, 1956, 22 mins);
• The Haunted Curiosity Shop (WR Booth, 1901, 2 mins);
• Fully illustrated booklet with an essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum; a review by Tom Milne; interviews with Dominique Labourier, Juliet Berto and Jacques Rivette; Susan Seidelman’s reflections on her Rivette-inspired Desperately Seeking Susan; and full film credits.

Product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1290/ Cert 12
France / 1974 / colour / 194 mins / French language with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.37:1 / BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 stereo audio (48kHz/24-bit), PCM 2.0 commentary audio (48kHz/16-bit)

[Oedipax]

Beaver, transfer looks good to me.

[dda1996a]

I should probably go through the rest of my Rivette box first, but -
Loved Paris Nous Appartient, Va Savoir had its charms, couldn't get through Out 1. Should I blind buy this?
I'm fond of Borges, Lynch, and all the themes that would go along with those two artists (parallel worlds, mysteries etc.).

[Shrew]

Yes. This is easily the most enjoyable Rivette I've seen, and everything clicks.

I'd advise not using Out 1 as a barometer for judging Rivette. Yes, most of his pet themes and stylistic tics are all there, but it is an distention and distortion of those ideas to insane length. I like (not love) it, but basing expectations for other Rivette films on it is a tad like using Finnegan's Wake as an introduction to Joyce.

ETA: The beaver caps look like the same DCP the briefly revived New Yorker toured a few years ago. Glad to see it finally escaped into the wild.

[Michael Kerpan]

If I can find my French DVD, I should do some screen captures. Definitely liked the French release's cover better, however.

[knives]

Co-sign with shrew. Easily Rivette at his most digestible.

[Michael Kerpan]

Co-sign with shrew. Easily Rivette at his most digestible.

I think Pont du Nord and Joan the Maid more "digestible". But compared to Out 1, Duelle, Noroit, Merry Go Round and L'amour fou, Celine and Julie is pretty easy to handle.

[knives]

I haven't seen Joan, but with Pont, while I think it is probably a better film I'm not entirely sure if it is as immediately approachable and pleasant. Though it definitely comes close.

[dda1996a]

Would you consider Paris Nous Appartient pleasant? Why are Duelle etc considered hard films by Rivette? If only his films weren't just 3+ hours I'd be quicker to go through them

[Michael Kerpan]

I like (or love) almost everything by Rivette -- so maybe my opinion isn't all that helpful.

I wouldn't call Paris especially "pleasant" -- but it is quite interesting (and a wonderful depiction of long ago Paris in b&w). I see it as having close kinship to the contemporary works of P K Dick (which Rivette would have read -- but how much he may have seen when this film was made is unclear -- and no one seems to have asked him about this).

I don't look for comprehensible plots when it comes to Rivette. I strongly recommend Story of Marie and Julien -- almost surely his sweetest-natured film (and one of his most visually pleasing).

[Drucker]

Would you consider Paris Nous Appartient pleasant? Why are Duelle etc considered hard films by Rivette? If only his films weren't just 3+ hours I'd be quicker to go through them

As one of the more novice cinemaphiles here, who was introduced to Rivette through recent blu-rays, I think there's just nothing quite like him! One can read a description of what his films are "about" and the themes they play with, but they don't quite prepare you for what you are watching. The films are adventures full of characters, puzzles, and mazes, but Rivette's depiction of those things is nothing like I've seen anywhere else, even amongst his peers in the French New Wave. There is a mindset to get in when watching a Rivette film, and that's what makes them "difficult", not the length.

Just my two cents.