criterionforum.org

Michael Kerpan wrote: Sat Apr 10, 2021 10:03 pm Noiretc -- I NEVER doubted you! Just annoyed by my own clearly inadequate incomplete attention.

So, that leaves the question -- did Marie stage this with her gangster boyfriend to get the crazy girl to leave her alone.

Oh I see, thanks! Very interesting that you didn't notice. Does this modify your interpretation of the film/ending now? (Ie Is your question a new one for you?)

I always just assumed Marie really was killed. So, this WILL require some re-assessment. But I do suspect that Marie was finding it a bother dealing with her "ward"....

Maybe she was killed in the plot up to that point, but then we entered another plane as she got up and the martial arts lesson commenced, because the maze was completed? (I don't know.)

I wonder how many (seemingly) small things I have missed in Le Pont du Nord, Out 1 and others, and how often rewatches will cause re-thinks. I suspect that Mr Rivette would be very happy with such things.

I continue to be shocked that Lynch is not on record talking about Rivette, unless I missed it somewhere. Surely someone, at some time, must have asked Lynch about Rivette? I find some of Rivette's films to be more Lynchian than Lynch.

I was floored after my first viewing of C+JGB last night, and elements of it reminded me very much of Mulholland Drive. Lo and behold, look at the pairings in this Lynch/Rivette film festival:

https://www.filmlinc.org/daily/lineup-f ... -revealed/

Sometimes there's just that uncanny harmony in worldview divorced from emulation. I've also been adamantly drawing comparisons between Rivette and Thomas Pynchon for years, but as far as I know only Rosenbaum has affirmed their similarities in academic analyses I've come across. There's very little likelihood that either artist influenced the other though, considering they started right around the same time and bared their stylistic approaches to these themes in their first works.

One could definitely draw a thematic line between those two films as well as Daisies and Persona, among other (I'm sure) obvious examples that I'm struggling to think of off the top of my head! I vaguely recall reading that Rivette was inspired by Chytilová's film – at the very least, he was aware of it several years before making Celine and Julie: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2016/jac ... du-cinema/ – but otherwise perhaps it is just great minds thinking alike …

I've never had the impression that Lynch was much of a cinephile, and wouldn't be surprised if he had never seen any of Rivette's films.

CJG wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:34 pm I've never had the impression that Lynch was much of a cinephile, and wouldn't be surprised if he had never seen any of Rivette's films.

He's spoken very fondly of Tati's work in the past, although I know Hulot and Rivette aren't quite in the same world.

therewillbeblus wrote: Sun Apr 11, 2021 8:37 pm Sometimes there's just that uncanny harmony in worldview divorced from emulation. I've also been adamantly drawing comparisons between Rivette and Thomas Pynchon for years, but as far as I know only Rosenbaum has affirmed their similarities in academic analyses I've come across. There's very little likelihood that either artist influenced the other though, considering they started right around the same time and bared their stylistic approaches to these themes in their first works.

I'd also add Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares to the big influences on Rivette (along with Carrol). I can see the similarities between Rivette and Pynchon, but it would be Paris Belongs to Us that I would say is the closest to Pynchon's absurd conspiracies that is most similar to Rivette.

Rivette praises Chytlova very highly in the BFI Rivette book (which someone should get back into print, its a great read). He memorably and aptly describes "Daisies" as "the custard pie of the new cinema".

furbicide wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:31 pm Update from Potemkine rep: Up/Down/Fragile and Secret Defense WILL have English subs.

There are no English subtitles on Potemkine's previous Rivette releases are there? Not that they don't already have UK/US releases anyway, but I'd have been interested in their release of Le Pont du Nord which uses a newer restoration than the MoC and includes Paris s'en va.

I'd wait for the Cohen releases if those were likely to have any extras but seeing as Jeanne la pucelle didn't I'm not confident that these will have any either.

Calvin wrote: Sun Apr 18, 2021 3:00 pm

furbicide wrote: Fri Apr 09, 2021 12:31 pm Update from Potemkine rep: Up/Down/Fragile and Secret Defense WILL have English subs.

There are no English subtitles on Potemkine's previous Rivette releases are there? Not that they don't already have UK/US releases anyway, but I'd have been interested in their release of Le Pont du Nord which uses a newer restoration than the MoC and includes Paris s'en va.

I can confirm that there are no English subtitles on Potemkine's 'Le Pont du Nord' release.

Yep, that's my understanding re: previous Rivette releases. So the news about Up/Down/Fragile and Secret Defense having English subtitles was a very welcome surprise.

I've been making my way through the unseen Rivettes left in my kevyip, and while his early silents are pretty useless, I found his most vapid film, Le Quadrille, to be difficult to critique because it's boring by design, and an unsettling reflection of our current 'Social Gatherings with Everyone Buried in their Own iPhones' era but back in the beatnik bohemia where thick banality plagued 50s intelligentsia with isolation. I can't recommend with confidence watching 40 minutes of people just sitting in a room completely disengaging, because it's incredibly painful and a waste of time, but so is this life that Rivette and Godard and their crew only knew too well, so it's not without self-reflexive merit.

Le Quadrille is pretty unbearable, yeah. And all the more painful for its obviousness. I did get some more mileage out of Aux quatre coins in terms of the images themselves, but I don't know that anyone other than die-hards should be seeking these out.

Both "Secret Defense" and "Haut, bas, fragile" will be out in June (with French subtitles only):
https://store.potemkine.fr/dvd/35450200 ... s-rivette/
https://store.potemkine.fr/dvd/35450200 ... s-fragile/

Stefan -- Hoping these show up in English-subbed form not too long afterwards... (I have the lovely French-only long-ago DVD set that includes these already).

soundchaser wrote: Mon Apr 19, 2021 6:22 pm Le Quadrille is pretty unbearable, yeah. And all the more painful for its obviousness. I did get some more mileage out of Aux quatre coins in terms of the images themselves, but I don't know that anyone other than die-hards should be seeking these out.

I think the fact that Rivette hid these films under his bed and told everyone who asked after them that they were lost was a clear enough caveat. They are indeed tough going, though Quadrille is a good idea for an anti-film I guess...

Stefan wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 5:37 am Both "Secret Defense" and "Haut, bas, fragile" will be out in June (with French subtitles only):
https://store.potemkine.fr/dvd/35450200 ... s-rivette/
https://store.potemkine.fr/dvd/35450200 ... s-fragile/

As noted in the previous page, the Potemkine rep told me by email a few weeks ago that the DVDs will in fact have English subtitles. So hopefully those pages just need to be updated and they haven't changed their plans on that again.

furbicide wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 2:36 am

Stefan wrote: Tue May 04, 2021 5:37 am Both "Secret Defense" and "Haut, bas, fragile" will be out in June (with French subtitles only):
https://store.potemkine.fr/dvd/35450200 ... s-rivette/
https://store.potemkine.fr/dvd/35450200 ... s-fragile/

As noted in the previous page, the Potemkine rep told me by email a few weeks ago that the DVDs will in fact have English subtitles. So hopefully those pages just need to be updated and they haven't changed their plans on that again.

I definitely hope you are right and not me. But then again it would be the first time for Potemkine releases to feature English subtitles (as far as I know). The important thing, though, will be a much improved image resolution on either release, so it's worth getting them anyway. The previous DVD variants were tolerable at best.

Potemkine's assorted Rohmer box sets have English subtitles for the features (not for the supplements).

Same thing with Rozier. They’re usually good about that.

So much the better. Let's hope they stick to their practice (and stay true to their word).

Potemkine's previous Rivette blu rays (whose covers match these upcoming titles) do not appear to be English-friendly.
Slightly off-topic, but I'm excited to see that Potemkine have a blu ray of Hopper's "Out Of The Blue" forthcoming in December.

kubelkind wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 2:05 pm Slightly off-topic, but I'm excited to see that Potemkine have a blu ray of Hopper's "Out Of The Blue" forthcoming in December.

That was originally announced for (I think) this April, but then suddenly shifted to 31 December. I think that's just a placeholder date.