The Story of Marie and Julien

Jacques Rivette's 2003 French film follows Julien, a clockmaker with destructive impulses. He decides to blackmail a wealthy woman who deals in stolen antiques, and the business leads him to Marie, with whom he fell in love a year earlier; Marie's condition is not what it seems. The film buries its ghost story in everyday detail. What Marie is goes unsaid for a long time, and when it is said no explanation follows; the real matter is how two people try to live with the situation. Rivette had begun the project in the seventies and stopped after a few days because of illness; he shot it again some thirty years later. Emmanuelle Beart and Jerzy Radziwilowicz lead. The running time is long and the pace is left entirely to the rhythm of the scenes. Who it's for: those who like Rivette's cinema and slow fantastical narrative. Who it's not for: viewers expecting explanation; the film never fully states its rules.