His films are celebrated around the world, from Hollywood to Tokyo, as evidenced by the guests (Alex Ross Perry, Mark Goldblatt, Nobuhiro Suwa …) of large format that we spend in November in his masterpiece, Out 1 (1971). But it is primarily the history of French cinema Jacques Rivette has forked through his critical commitments, taste of mystery, the game of experimentation. For Le Monde , a dozen fellow – employees or simple admirers – evoke the journey of the filmmaker, who died on January 29, to 87 years
. Read also: Death of the director of the New Wave Jacques Rivette, the mysterious band
Pascal Bonitzer: “We wrote to the wire without a net”
critic, filmmaker and screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer co-wrote all the films of Jacques Rivette Earth by Love (1984) 36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak (2009).
“I met him in the Cahiers du Cinema, in 1969, there was quite far in a master position to think playful. He walked away from the magazine at the time of ideological shift, which corresponded with his return to production.
His producer Martine Marignac put us in contact for this particular project which has become Love ground. He wanted to make a film with Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Jane Birkin and Geraldine Chaplin apartment around the theater. It happened that I had seen a show by Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman staged in these conditions. This coincidence has pleased him, he decided that we could work together. I was a little reluctant. His method, which was new at the time, was to turn a script written in as and shooting. It seemed interesting and dangerous. It was felt to write to the wire without a net. Successful or failed, all would be over at the end of two months, in contrast to a scenario written in standard conditions, where we may require you umpteen versions. I enjoyed this freedom that Jacques gave me, it also gave me a taste for dialogues. Without him I would not have realized film.
It was a very tough stage director. His films were realized from day to day, often in sequence shots with William Lubtchansky, his chief favorite operator. It was necessary to Jacques Rivette complicity with his collaborators, the cinematographer, screenwriter, actors. This complicity supposed fidelity: I wrote all his films from Love ground, William was his cinematographer with some exceptions, and when he was not there, they were people he had trained who took his place, as Caroline Champetier for The Gang of Four. This complicity was based on its charm on its secretive handling capacity.
For Balzac, the films were made as conspiracies against the dominant way of making films. Rivette system was totally opposed to the way most are films that require a scenario drawn by line. At home, the watchword was the lack of control. Each film was a new challenge: in the musical Up, Down, fragile, the story in Jeanne la Pucelle, painting and Balzac in The Beautiful Troublemaker.
He chose these challenges according to his fancy. When he decided to do Jeanne la Pucelle, that was not to stage Joan of Arc or make a film about the Middle Ages. He wondered what he could do with Sandrine Bonnaire. He knew very little about Joan of Arc, even though he was born in Rouen, even if he had read Peguy.
During the time of our collaboration, he has realized that a script written in full before the shooting, The Duchess of Langeais. It was his penultimate film. At the time of the last 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup, he was already affected by the disease. We always wrote daily. He had lost immediate memory, filming was tough, he did not remember what he had shot the day before, it was terrible and painful. Jacques did not like illness, he did not like death. He never attended a funeral. He had turned to the present and the immediate future. “
Caroline Champetier” A dancer gesture “
Director of Photography, Caroline Champetier enlightened The Band four (1989).
“I was first assistant to the chief op ‘William Lubtchansky, on the set of Merry-Go-Round on The North Bridge . It was my film adolescence. Then I signed the photo of The Gang of Four. On this film, we felt that Rivette was in a renewal situation. He told us: “I do not understand, the light does not make sense!” He was a very special, feminine, with a dancer’s gestures. On The Gang of Four , Rivette made me shoot women, especially my first great actress Bulle Ogier. I had a responsibility to his image, I took this mission very seriously. “
Bulle Ogier:” He disappeared two days … then come back “
Actress, Bulle Ogier starred in seven films Rivette , L’Amour fou (1969) Do not Touch the Axe (2007).
“I would like to mention the joy of having met Jacques as director. I do not want to stay in my sadness, which is nevertheless very large. This happiness was to make movies with him around the table, from inspiration, literary discussions, an idea that was taking him to something else. He had a poetic side of childhood … On a shoot, he could disappear two days, producers, like Martine Marignac, sought him everywhere, worried … Then he came back.
I met the first time for a role nun in Suzanne Simonin, Diderot Religious . Then I played in the Amour fou , which was decisive for the future, for example, in my meeting with Bunuel. L’Amour fou Do not Touch the Axe is a lifetime for me. As for Jacques Rivette, his reason for living, it was the cinema. “
Pierre-William Glenn:” On “Out 1″, always held camera “
Director of photography Pierre-William Glenn lit Out 1 (1971).
“There was Rivette with the idea of jumping into the unknown. Out 1 was a movie unconventional, while improvisation, with Bulle Ogier, Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marcel Bozonnet … Forty-five years after having turned, I continue to present the around the world, from Japan to the Cinematheque in Geneva! He remains a reference for the public. I restored from June to October 2015, after the Cannes Film Festival. I remember this shoot, I almost always had the camera 16 mm in the shoulder, I almost never put up. I was following the characters, you had to start listening to their rhythms, different. “
Marcel Bozonnet” He could spend an evening to repeat the story of Kodachrome! “
Actor, Marcel Bozonnet played in Out 1 (1971) and Jeanne la Pucelle (1994).
” I was studying in Dijon and my main occupation was to read Les Cahiers du cinema . At the time, the cinematic field was not as wide and it quickly became a film buff. One day I went to see a popular movie starring Lino Ventura. The first part was screened a short film by Jacques Rivette. I remember a glass of champagne, shown in close-up. He had a way to film that came out of our rhetoric. Then Rivette spotted me on stage at the theater, with Hermine Karaghioz.
I was an occasional collaborator, a theater man who grazed his universe. At 25, I turned in Out 1 , the large fresco that I have never looked for. Much later, I held a role in Jeanne la Pucelle . I remember his kindness, his vast culture. He could spend an evening to repeat the story of Kodachrome! There was something in him that grew to fellowship, it was available, not overlooked people. “
André Marcon:” He began to recite “The Afternoon of a Faun” “
Actor, André Marcon played in Jeanne la Pucelle (1994), Up, Down, Fragile (1995) and 36 Peak Views Saint-Loup (2009).
“With Jacques Rivette, I lived happy filming, which is exceptional. He lightness, gravity accuracy. I have a wonderful memory of filming Up, Down, Fragile. One day we had a big technical problem, between image and sound, which could jeopardize the working day. Jacques sat on the bed that was in the room, then he started to recite The Afternoon of a Faun, Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem he knew by heart. Meanwhile, the technicians solved the problem peacefully. It was of great culture, without the bludgeon. “
Martine Marignac” Jacques came up with an idea, without warning “
Producer Martine Marignac collaborated with Jacques Rivette’s North Bridge (1981) 36 Peak Views Saint-Loup (2009).
“Barbet Schroeder (in his capacity the producer Films du Losange) and Bulle Ogier wanted Jacques is back to work after the loss of The Stop The Story of Marie and Julien. He asked me to become producer. Jacques had not turned for five years, he was more or less banned from by insurers, there was no money at all. It was the North Bridge from a bit of money from a command Chapier Henri, who led Paris Audiovisuel, has gone for a short film on the occasion of Heritage year. It was even more improvised than usual, a scenario that Pascale and Bulle Ogier invented with Jacques in As, and Suzanne Schiffmann and Jerome Prieur trying to structure. Claustrophobia Bubble, released from prison, has no means to rent lights. His character could not go into a room, it was fortunate we did not have a round to shine.
After that, his method has not changed. Jacques came up with an idea, without warning. This idea was often a desire actor. Jacques had intuition and knowledge enough not to be mistaken. He never set foot in a social evening, but he saw everything. If he wanted to run with Sandrine Bonnaire and Guillaume Depardieu, it was because he had seen them in films.
From there, every week, there was a meeting and Bonitzer Suzanne Schiffmann, who succeeded Christine Laurent. Rivette loved trios, he wanted there to be a woman. They built what we called the “skeleton”, numbered 1 to 50, a description of the structure of the film. We, the producers, worked from there for scouting, casting supporting roles.
Jeanne la Pucelle, the methodology remained the same, with the constraints of film ‘time. It had made me this sentence remained famous: “. We will not shoot battles, Martine, only battle of ideas” When turning, it was difficult to explain to stunt that required a cut scene that was only an idea of battle.
We have seen the first signs of the disease during the preparation of 36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak. During filming, he was aware of being ill, that’s why the film is short. It turned four hours a day. The whole team was aware, and this notion troupe played full, everyone is put to it to help more than usual. He was a man of culture in a way that one hardly knows today, who knew by heart whole pages of Balzac, with the memory of an elephant on which the disease has fallen. We lived it for him as the worst possible mutilation. “
Jean Narboni:” An example of rigor, sharp “
Critical, Jean Narboni worked from 1963 to Cahiers du Cinema, after Jacques Rivette stole the direction Eric Rohmer .
“I met Jacques Rivette in 1962 the French Cinémathèque, rue d’Ulm, as a movie fan I attended, along I was pursuing my medical studies. It was for me an absolute model, the biggest criticism of Cahiers du cinema , and the rest elsewhere today all periods. An example of rigor, writing, sharp. So I have spoken to him, and he was quick to ask me to write, then work as sub-editor, the Cahiers. I started part time and then I ended up stopping medicine. I was very close to him during those years, we spent the whole day working together.
Besides, it’s pretty simple, you could see that Rivette working condition with him. He was literally immersed in the movie, which does not prevent him from opening the cinephile Notebooks to other disciplines, such as psychoanalysis or structuralism. Once he had made up his mind, in a somewhat delirious, work the report of cinema in mathematics: we had to put in it at the rate of several per week, but fortunately it did not last too long. Music was our other big ground. It was a very happy time. I have to remember him not of the ascetic sometimes described, but a being infinite charm, penetrating intelligence, the inextinguishable laughter at times. It was, in the history of French criticism, a great precursor. “
Jean-Louis Comolli:” At Rivette, everything attracts without reaching “
Criticism and filmmaker, Jean-Louis Comolli was editor-in Head of Cahiers du cinema in 1966-1971, following Jacques Rivette.
“The term” eulogy “is not suitable for Jacques Rivette. Praise, perhaps, funeral, no. Jacques was laughing. I remember seeing her laughing as it were detached from her face, floating, laughter Alice’s cat, unsituatable. Neither contempt nor superiority, an astonishment, only, that of a child who liked to shoot women and who had no need for it passes scenario.
Can we even talk improvisation when any fascination aside, one realizes that Rivette films almost always the same situations, the only similar situation: that of the unlikely encounter each (each) with the other? The paths cross and avoid body, and that’s why it lasts, why it has no end. Everything is magnetized, with Rivette, bodies, words, gestures, clouds, everything attracts without achieve.
Perhaps the filmmaker he had thwarted the beauty of its characters female, worn by actresses also awesome that Juliet Berto and Bulle Ogier, Jane Birkin and Sandrine Bonnaire, to achieve pure cinema intensities beyond the plot, beyond the story, beyond the relevance , even beyond the ritual invocation consistency in the rationale, the logic, the need, which are the ordinary of our time, and one-fifteen minutes sequence shot had the power to dissolve to exit the cinema.
Jacques Rivette has taught me to love the almost-nothing of passing time by becoming, on a screen, almost everything. In other words, unleash the fiction to become documentary. “
André Téchiné:” I was fascinated by its magical and childish rituals “
Criticism and filmmaker André Téchiné rubbed shoulders with Jacques Rivette Notebooks film , and on the set of Mad Love (1968), where he was assistant director.
“It’s Rivette who insisted that Les Cahiers du cinema publish my first review on The Soft Skin , Truffaut. I had the opportunity to meet him, to the magazine. Sometimes he would say of a movie: “Ah, it goes in all directions!” For him it was the supreme praise, the height of jubilation
For him, cinema was the equivalent of a abandonment, a leap into the void. His films defy the rules, limits, the same staging concepts, control, period. With L’Amour fou, Out 1 or The North Bridge , he invented radical film experiments, wildly exciting. I do not know a filmmaker who protects his junior. “
Axelle Ropert:” It was the same intransigence “
Criticism and filmmaker, Axelle Ropert is the author of two feature films, including Pull the tongue, miss (2013).
“At a time when a growing number of voices welcomes slyly from the end of the New Wave (which is good known, “killed the public, the work of screenwriters and respect for well-made film” – crap that would easily refuted by examining the facts), at a time when we break our ears with stories of scenarios ” shielded “from” newfound virility “of French cinema, film” punched in the mouth “and nice little” real “all the sauces, baked and annealed, I tell myself every day: ” The the last day of the New Wave filmmakers are dead, it will be ruined. “
Rivette, it was the same intransigence. How intransigence can it be missed? We miss her not because she was punishing us (we are not in an Austrian filmmaker), but because it mysteriously doubled an incredible sense of reverie. It is often said that the great dreamers are nice, but they are far from the world (or more bluntly, they would do well to land, one day). And I say: how can one be a great dreamer if not precisely by observing the world? “
Christine Laurent:” The champion of free gesture “
Actress, screenwriter and filmmaker Christine Laurent co-wrote the scenarios of nine films by Jacques Rivette, of The Gang of Four (1989) 36 Peak Views Saint-Loup (2009).
“He said that the aim of cinema, c is told that the real world on the screen is as an idea in the world. “We must see the world as an idea, you have to think like concrete.” He wanted each of his films is an adventure for those who were part of his team and also later for spectators who would see it.
We, his accomplices work, we were a little like sisters and brothers conspiring to build adult stories, with the energy and severity of childhood. For him, arrange the stories, monitor the work of dialogists, to stage, mount, all these phases actually formed a single and big bow. And he alone held the entire gesture.
When turning, he was lying in wait, ready to capture the unexpected, almost nothing he turn into opportunity. It looked like a dancer inventing his figures on the rhythm of the melody he had in mind. Also, his body than his actors was handed a kind of fluid that enchanted the sequence.
Jacques Rivette, like all his films attest, loved women and their secrets. Early on, Les Filles du feu announced a corpus of films populated by female characters. It was the champion of the free gesture, an acrobat who performed his tricks without a net.
His smile, his laughter almost carnivorous sometimes still resonate through his films. Hélène Frappat evokes in his book Jacques Rivette, secret understood , the final sequence of Who knows, in which we learn that the company is saved, the theater is saved, the world is saved, “we are saved,” while the voice of Peggy Lee sings Senza Fine . Jacques Rivette translated the title of this song: “Must be continued.” Then he adds. “It’s a formula that I would put at the end of all movies” “
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