107 Va savoir

[Finch]

Released in the UK: April 28th.

Returning home with her travelling theatre troupe, actress Camille (Jeanne Balibar) finds the affections of her director lover Ugo (Sergio Castellitto) have waned after he takes an interest in Dominique (Hélène de Fougerolles), a vivacious student helping him search for an infamous missing play. In a bid to make him jealous, Camille reunites with her former lover Pierre (Jacques Bonnaffé), now happily married to Sonia (Marianne Basler), and a farce-like series of love triangles ensue. Theatrically exploring attraction, jealousy, and every emotion in between, Jacques Rivette’s quick-witted and zesty romantic drama turns a satirical lens on the city’s intelligentsia - for whom Paris will always be their home - to ask whether even they know what love is all about.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES

New 4K restorations of Va savoir (the 154-minute theatrical cut) and Va savoir+ (the 223-minute director’s original cut), presented on two discs

Original uncompressed PCM stereo audio

Select-scene audio commentary by screenwriters Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent

Archival interview with director Jacques Rivette (2001)

Archival interview with star Jeanne Balibar

Interview with critic Jonathan Romney (2024)

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di Battista

Limited edition booklet with archival writing by Rivette expert Mary M. Wiles

[domino harvey]

For those lamenting any remaining Rivette releases, oldtimers will tell you that for the early years of the DVD format, this was the only Rivette title US audiences could even see, thanks to Sony's DVD (and you can imagine how incomplete an experience that was for those young film students, like myself, trying to piece anything in it to the arguments being made about the director in New Wave books). I haven't seen it since those early days myself, and all I remember is thinking its (original) length wasn't justified by what we got, so great, there's even more here! I'll revisit with this release though, since this falls in a period of Rivette that I like more than most of his other eras

[therewillbeblus]

I think the longer cut is great, and also disliked the original version. My thoughts on why

Revisited Va Savoir vis the longer cut. The first hour really dragged, and I almost turned it off thinking I’d hate it as much as I did the truncated version, but the cumulative vibe started to gel shortly into its second hour and I wound up really enjoying what Rivette was doing here. What becomes apparent in the end of even the short version is that Rivette is playing with screwball devices, but the original rhythm destroyed the necessary breathing room Rivette depends upon to aesthetically craft his intentions. It may read as oxymoronic, but in holding space for a tone to develop, the long cut flies by effortlessly starting in its second hour whereas the short cut never escaped its curious condensing of ideas to ascend beyond a slog. There was no reason to buy in when economy usurped a lucid flow, but here the comedy and drama finally blend and trade off well together. The moods are inserted inside Russian dolls storytelling and labyrinthine webs of extremely banal mysteries, even by Rivette’s standards. The joke seems to be in dissipating the mirage of rich gravitas present in his other work to focus more on a Woody Allen-esque sheen of light whimsical spirit. It's not among his very best films, but it does feel like the logical endpoint for his epic anti-mysteries, especially after he pushed the boundaries of his ethos into an entirely new genre of musical and then obliterated his anti-paranoia with a tangible answer in Secret Defense. It's much like how Woody Allen recalibrated all his past works' tropes and motifs into a diluted piece of lovely fluff in A Rainy Day in New York, as an old man therapeutically approaching the same content and concerns he's addressed throughout his career with a developed serenity from self-actualization. I thought Va Savoir played entirely differently with its extra third put back in place, and highly recommend anyone with access gives it another go when you have four hours to spare

[colinr0380]

Fantastic! This last came out on DVD in the UK through Artificial Eye in the early 2000s but only in the shorter cut and, as with the majority of Artificial Eye titles, no extras. I think the only Rivette film that Artificial Eye released in the UK in both versions (as separate releases) was La belle noiseuse.

(La belle noiseuse incidentally occupies a significant place in UK television history, as the four hour version was the film that Channel 4 showed throughout the night of 5th January 1997, the first evening the channel went to 24 hour broadcasting! Which raised unrealistic expectations for me of that being the direction Channel 4 would follow from that point onward, which was scuppered once live footage from the Big Brother house took over the night time schedules of their channel from 2000 onwards! La belle noiseuse has not been shown on UK television since that single airing)

[spectre]

This is a huge release and hopefully another big step in the direction of viewers being able to approach the director’s cut as Rivette’s definitive vision of Va Savoir, and the film being re-appreciated accordingly.

Like TWBB, I think the four-hour version is vastly superior to the shorter cut (which I also thought little of on first viewing), but I’d go further and say that it is one of his best – I’d be comfortable with placing it in or just outside his top five (after his great late ’60s / early ’70s work and La Belle Noiseuse, and maybe on par with something like Love on the Ground). I feel it captures much of the magic of his earlier work, along with the interplay between theatrical performance and theatrical “real” relationships between a web of protagonists that is at the heart of some of his best films.

[adamfeldman]

Like TWBB, I think the four-hour version is vastly superior to the shorter cut (which I also thought little of on first viewing), but I’d go further and say that it is one of his best – I’d be comfortable with placing it in or just outside his top five

Va Savoir is my biggest Rivette blind spot, so really looking forward to this release and very psyched to hear this.

My top 3 would be Out 1 / L'Amour Fou / Belle Noiseuse, but after that I might throw a few curveballs as I really like Haut Bas Fragile and Joan the Maid.

[therewillbeblus]

Haut Bas Fragile has a lot of love here. It’s my second favorite after his first feature

[Michael Kerpan]

Pont du nord is my sentimental Rivette favorite -- and then there is a massive tie for second place.

[CSM126]

Va beavoir

[Paul Moran]

I'd already seen (and, I think, enjoyed) the theatrical cut on DVD, 19 years ago, so I watched the DC version yesterday, instead of the theatrical cut. Never again. Fortunately, the Pirandello inserts didn't seem quite as long as the theatrical scenes in Out 1: Noli Me Tangere, which I ended up fast-forwarding. On the plus side, it led me to order the Cohen Blu-ray of La Belle Noiseuse, to replace my Artificial Eye DVD.

[justeleblanc]

The theatrical release was my first Rivette, which I watched via Netflix shortly after leaving college. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I just didn't get it. Since then I've gotten Rivette and love most of his films, with Celine and Julie and Belle Noiseuse being my favorites, alongside Duelle, Out 1, L'amour fou, Marie and Julien, and Duchess of Langeais, among others. It was only recently that I went back to watch VS+, and I actually think it's a masterpiece. You have to be in the right mood, but the jokes really do land, and the midlife crisis of the characters was more relatable than I anticipated. It has a Celine and Julie quality, with maybe a Gang of Four storyline. I'm not sure other Rivette fans would agree with me that it's one of his best. mlMaybe it appeals only to a certain type of Rivette fan.

[Michael Kerpan]

I have VS+ sitting at the top of my recently acquired to-be-watched pike (along with the UHD of Cure). I loved VS -- and I found the underlying play pretty interesting (we saw it -- in English -- shortly after first watching the movie, when Harvard's drama club did this in a timely fashion, purely by luck). So I expect to love VS+ too.

[Lowry_Sam]

I think I am the only person here whose favorite Rivette is La Religieuse. I have the Kino blu but would upgrade to a UHD in an instant if a good one becomes available. I think it is Anna Karina’s 2nd best performance after Vivre sa vie. I’ve heard a lot of hate for it here but not much argumentation on why people dislike it so much.

[mhofmann]

I think I am the only person here whose favorite Rivette is La Religieuse. I have the Kino blu but would upgrade to a UHD in an instant if a good one becomes available. I think it is Anna Karina’s 2nd best performance after Vivre sa vie. I’ve heard a lot of hate for it here but not much argumentation on why people dislike it so much.

I have too much Rivette to catch up on to be able to call any of his films my 'favorite' but La Religieuse is a masterpiece.

[soundchaser]

Speaking only for myself: I find Rivette’s playfulness - both with his characters and with his formal elements - his most interesting quality as a filmmaker. There’s not a lot of that in La religieuse, so it doesn’t hit quite as hard for me. It feels like a detour from the path he started on with Paris nous appartient.

[Michael Kerpan]

Is there a genuinely good looking subbed release of Religieuse yet. My recollection was that the (now rather old, I think) BD looked much worse color-wise than my unsubbed DVD, so I passed on this. I remember liking this despite the lack of subs, however. When Duchess came out, it felt a bit like a successor to this early film.

[Aunt Peg]

Is there a genuinely good looking subbed release of Religieuse yet. My recollection was that the (now rather old, I think) BD looked much worse color-wise than my unsubbed DVD, so I passed on this. I remember liking this despite the lack of subs, however. When Duchess came out, it felt a bit like a successor to this early film.

I'm afraid there isn't.

That UK Studio Canal release from 2018 is one of the worst releases of any film on Blu Ray - it is so tealed that I found it distracting to watch.

I've only ever seen La religieuse twice in my life. The first time was back in the 1980's on the big screen but in a very faded pink print of the film and then the 'restoration' on Blu Ray drenched in teal.

I doubt I'll live long enough to ever see the film in it's correct colour coding.

[Lowry_Sam]

It was on both Kanopy & the Criterion channels about a year ago (just checked & it's gone from both) & that prompted me to buy the blu in one of Kino's sales for $10. I haven't opened it up but Dvdbeaver's caps look very blue green, so they probably just ported the Ritrovata'd 4k resto directly. I don't remember the Kanopy being as green as those captures, but I assume both channels just had Kino's version without any correction. Would be nice if a UK label rescued it, even better if on UHD, but I'd double dip either way as it's the Rivette I like most to date.

[Michael Kerpan]

My sense is that the unsubbed French DVD actually looked pretty decent color-wise. I will have to figure out where this has been buried. Not sure how to post screen shots these days (assuming I can get some).

[martin]

There is a screencap from the French La religieuse-DVD in the spoiler (roughly the same frame as one of the frames from DVDBeaver's BD review). Colorwise the DVD is much better, I think.

Spoiler

[Michael Kerpan]

martin -- thanks for providing this. The DVD may be less sharp and "sans-soutitre" -- but struck me as much more visually appealing. The color scheme of the BD seems just plain perverse.

[martin]

I wrote a fan review of the French DVD 15 years ago or so and I thought the image quality was excellent at the time. I'm not sure my capture above reflects that (captured by VLC, JPEG compressed). I think you're correct in sensing that it's a good release regarding picture quality, and it actually looks better when viewed in motion on a decent TV. My screencap mostly reflects the difference in color and not so much the percieved sharpness/contrast.

To get back on topic: I need to get the long edition of Va savoir. I've never seen that version!

[Michael Kerpan]

Halfway through VS+ -- not up to watching 3.75 hours in one sitting these days. Looking good so far (and as interesting as ever).

[fdm]

When I watched La Religieuse on filmstruck, it was still looking pretty normal. (Also pretty sure it was hi-def then.)

[domino harvey]

The original Japanese Blu-ray should have the original non-resto’d color timing, but no English subs obv