Duelle (Une Quarantaine)

Two goddesses are loose in Paris. One is the moon, one is the sun, and both are hunting a diamond that would let them stay in the world of the living. Between them are a dancer, a hotel clerk and a few people who did not ask to be involved. Jacques Rivette directs, with Juliet Berto as the moon and Bulle Ogier as the sun. The film belongs to a planned quartet Rivette called Scènes de la vie parallèle. Only two of the four were finished: this and Noroît. The method is the point. As often with Rivette, much of the dialogue was generated with the actors close to the day of shooting. Its most visible consequence is musical: the pianist Jean Wiener plays inside the frame, in the room, at the same time as the performance. The score is not laid over the film afterwards. It occupies the same space, and occasionally walks through the shot. Rivette suffered a breakdown while shooting Noroît immediately afterwards, and the quartet stopped there. There was no commercial life to speak of. The film was hard to see for decades and only returned to circulation through recent restorations. Who it is for: viewers who like genre rebuilt on dream logic and narrative rules broken on purpose. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for the plot to arrive somewhere. Who wants what is deliberately unclear, and the film has no intention of clearing it up.