Le Pont du Nord

Marie has just come out of prison and cannot bear enclosed spaces; she will not take the metro, cannot stay in rooms, and spends all her time outside. Baptiste rides around Paris on a motorbike, cutting the eyes out of posters with a knife, convinced the city is hostile to her. The two meet. A map comes into their hands, marked in a way that divides Paris like the board of a game of goose. They begin following it. Jacques Rivette directs. Bulle Ogier plays Marie and her daughter Pascale Ogier plays Baptiste; both contributed to the writing. The film was shot entirely outdoors, in the street. The budget was very low; Rivette walked the city with the crew and used what he found, and neighbourhoods then being demolished appear in it. The rules of the narrative are set by a game. The two women move between squares on the map, something happens in each, and conspiracy and children's play sit on the same plane. Behind it is France at the start of the eighties: political tension, surveillance, and the rebuilding of the city. The film does not explain any of it and confirms nothing. Pascale Ogier died a few years later at twenty five, and this is among the most cited works of her short career. Who it is for: viewers who like Rivette and narratives whose rules are uncertain. Who it is not for: there is no plot to follow, the pace is slow, and the film explains nothing at any point.