Review of Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) by Donovan D — 28 Feb 2008

While Godard and Truffaut were the twin towering figures of the New Wave during its 60s heyday, the downward spiral of Godard into Maoism and Truffaut's settling into being less an innovator than an assured master left open the early 1970s for fellow New Wave luminaries Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette to come to the fore, and Rivette shines in this masterful essay on the art of storytelling. Improvisation had been a key player in the formation of the New Wave identity, as seen in such seemingly made-up-as-we-go features as Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player and Godard's Pierrot Le Fou. Here Rivette uses a similarly improvisational approach, but he takes it further: within the telling of his story, his two female protagonists Celine and Julie are themselves telling a story that they are making up as the go along, to the point where they become embedded deep within their own tale. The line between reality and fiction become increasingly blurred throughout the film as Rivette deconstructs this thing called 'story', and its a charmingly magical thing to watch.

Much is made of Rivette being a difficult filmmaker, but how can one describe a film filled with such wonder and playfulness as anything but joyous? Granted, it is a long film, but like Rivette's late career masterpiece La Belle Noiseuse, Celine and Julie is a film so rivetting (pun intended) that it never feels like a chore. For viewers who loved fairytales as children but have outgrown some of the more childish Disney-fare, Celine and Julie is an adult fairytale of the highest calibre.