Let Us Now Praise Jacques Rivette

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"I care more about the grace of the actors’ gestures and the quality of their voices than what they actually do or say."

The names of the French New Wave have become staples for both French Cinema and beyond. The critics of Cahiers Du Cinema like Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, and Eric Rohmer all turned to filmmaking to put into practice the meanings they had pulled from their valorization of Hollywood Cinema. But the most passionaite of those critics, and perhaps the most creative of those filmmakers was Jacques Rivette, who passed away on January 29th at the age of 87. In this new podcast, former guests of the show (Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Miriam Bale, and Matt Prigge) join in a roundtable discussion of the critic and filmmaker. They analyze his films, his writings, and his attention to collaboration, all of which made him a wholly unique individual in the history of cinema. Torn between his obsessions with realism and fantasy, Rivette captured the essence of the medium's paradoxical specificity.

0:00-3:33 Opening

3:33-28:18 Rivette Discussion Part 1

29:00-33:09 Sponsorship Section
33:47-1:02:30 Rivette Discussion Part 2

1:02:34-1:05:07 Close / Outtakes

Read Dave Kehr's obituary of Jacques Rivette, and find numerous resources on the filmmaker at this website here.

Out 1 is available on Kino Lorber DVD and Fandor. Le Pont Du Nord is available from Kino Lorber. Duelle, Noroit, and Merry-Go-Round can be found on Blu-Ray in this Arrow Films Box Set. Paris Belongs To Us is available through Hulu+ and The Criterion Collection. L'Amour Fou is on YouTube.

Follow Our Guests on Twitter: Miriam Bale, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, Matt Prigge.

Episode #70 - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Out 1)

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"The role of criticism was to improve the discourse, but as an intermediary function. The discourse around a film begins before the critic comes along, continues after the critic leaves. But if the critic is doing something right, more avenues are opened up.""

Dedicated listeners of The Cinephiliacs may be familiar with the phrase, "And then I discovered Jonathan Rosenbaum's writing," as countless cinephiles have been inspired by his many words in the Chicago Reader and beyond. Thus, this latest episode of the podcast interviews the man who championed films beyond the canon, exploring cinema through an essayistic, often deeply personal love for the movies. Jonathan discusses his upbringing in Alabama, seeing the French New Wave from the front lines, a short dip into academia, and his role in looking at the strange world of taste culture and its ties to the Hollywood industry. Then, the two dive into the recently restored mammoth of a film that has been waiting to enter the canon: Jacques Rivette's 13 hour Out 1. They discuss this work of connections in post-May '68 Paris that may or may not be a secret Balzac-influenced conspiracy, engaging the viewer to find the fiction in the documentary and the documentary in the fiction.

0:00-2:48 Opening

3:20-11:31  Establishing Shots - Reviews from AFI Fest
12:17-1:02:55 Deep Focus - Jonathan Rosenbaum

1:03:48-1:05:28 Mubi Sponsorship
1:06:32-1:31:10 Double Exposure - Out 1 (Jacques Rivette)

1:31:14-1:33:59 Close / Outtakes

Read Jonathan Rosenbaum's collected work on his website and a page with links to all of his publications.
Jacques Rivette's Out 1 will soon be playing London. Other screening info is here. More info on the UK box set release from Arrow Films and the upcoming US release from Kino Lorber.