Jacques Rivette

Jacques Rivette (March 1, 1928 - January 29, 2016) was a French film director. With Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette was one of the more experimental of the French New Wave (nouvelle vague) directors. In common with many of his peers, he had a background in film criticism, where he expressed his admiration for popular American cinema, especially genre directors such as Robert Aldrich, Howard Hawks and Frank Tashlin. Rivette's films progress in unconventional ways—often following multiple plots that can be romantic, mysterious, and comic all at once and employing extensive improvisation—and are often extremely long.

Works

The Glass Castle

Evelyne, the young wife of Judge Bertal, falls in love with Remy, who lives in Paris, on holiday in Italy. After following him in the lovers city, she realises Remy is whom she really loves, and decides to return home to inform her husband – but her plane crashes.

Release Date1950-12-16

Charactersd Un voyageur qui sort de la Gare de l'Est (uncredited)

Vote Count16

Paris Belongs to Us

A young woman joins a theatrical troupe where she slowly believes that the director is involved with a secret group and that he is in grave danger.

Release Date1961-12-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd A man at the party (uncredited)

Vote Count78

Merry-Go-Round

New Yorker Ben Phillips and mysterious Léo Hoffmann are strangers who are summoned to Paris by a mutual acquaintance. Upon arrival, they meet and soon find themselves tangled in a complex mystery.

Release Date1981-10-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Man entering car (cameo)

Vote Count17

Die Geheimnisse von Paris

A twenty-minute short documentary produced in 1972 about “Out 1”, directed by Jacques Rivette, featuring Éric Rohmer, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, Michel Delahaye, and Jacques Rivette.

Release Date2012-01-01

Charactersd Himself

Jean Renoir parle de son art

Three-part interview with French film director Jean Renoir, conducted by French New Wave director Jacques Rivette.

Release Date1961-11-11

Charactersd Interviewer

Joan the Maid I: The Battles

Convinced only she can lead France to victory against the invading English, Jeanne leaves her childhood home to plead with Charles, heir to the French throne, to allow her to guide his troops on the battlefield.

Release Date1994-02-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Priest (uncredited)

Vote Count27

Fool’s Mate

Claire is a chic young Parisian woman married to a somewhat older husband, Jean. Claire meets her lover, Claude, at his apartment, where he gifts her a fur coat. Now Claire needs to figure out how to return home with this expensive gift without the affair being found out.

Release Date1956-11-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Narrator (uncredited)

Vote Count33

Up, Down, Fragile

A librarian, a gangster's ex-lover and a woman who has recovered from a coma spend an eye-opening summer in Paris.

Release Date1995-04-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Man at Crepe/Hot Dog Stand

Vote Count25

Jean Renoir, le patron, 3e partie: La règle et l'exception

In the third part of a Cinéastes triptych on Jean Renoir, the director sits alone in a cinema analyzing scenes from La Marseillaise and The Rules of the Game, and discussing his editing and storytelling techniques.

Release Date1967-02-08

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Charactersd Self - Interviewer

Short Memory

In this thriller, a UNESCO translator stumbles across a group which is hiding and supporting Nazis and facilitating their travel around the world. She had been given an assignment to study the work of a writer who recently had died, and the conspiracy is revealed in materials he left behind. She comes upon a young man who is going through the writer's papers, and she immediately assumes he must be one of the conspirators. However, he soon convinces her of his innocence in that regard, and the two together begin a search for the ringleader.

Release Date1982-03-03

Charactersd Marcel Jaucourt

Vote Count7

Jean Renoir, le patron, 1re partie: La recherche du relatif

The first of three documentaries by Rivette on Jean Renoir.

Release Date1967-01-18

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Charactersd Self - Interviewer

Vote Count2

Jean Renoir, le patron, 2e partie: La direction d'acteur

Second in the documentary trilogy from mastermind Jacques Rivette, featuring a conversation between Jean Renoir and Michel Simon, who celebrate their reunion by discussing, among other things, La Chienne (1931) and Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932).

Release Date1967-01-22

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Charactersd Self - Interviewer

Vote Count3

Rome Is Burning: Portrait of Shirley Clarke

Documentary about filmmaker Shirley Clarke which originally aired on the French television series “Cinéastes de notre temps”.

Release Date1970-10-04

Charactersd Jacques Rivette

Vote Count2

Reflets de Cannes

Release Date1954-03-25

Charactersd Self

Episode Count1

Vote Count2

Pour le plaisir

Release Date1964-11-04

Charactersd Self

Episode Count1

Lumière & Company

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

Release Date1995-12-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Charactersd Self

Vote Count72

The Lovely Month of May

Candid interviews of ordinary people on the meaning of happiness, an often amorphous and inarticulable notion that evokes more basic and fundamentally egalitarian ideals of self-betterment, prosperity, tolerance, economic opportunity, and freedom.

Release Date1963-05-03

Charactersd Self (uncredited)

Vote Count42

Jacques Rivette, the Watchman

This film of interviews with the film director Jacques Rivette was produced in collaboration with Serge Daney, film critic from “Cahiers du cinéma”, then of “Liberation”. In the course of their conversations, the two speakers discuss Rivette’s career, his relationships with the other film makers of the new wave, his use of “mise en scene” and his working with actors.

Release Date1990-02-24

Charactersd Self - Director

Vote Count5

Nouvelle Vague : El cine sin dogmas

Release Date2000-04-02

Charactersd Self

Vote Count1

La Nouvelle Vague par elle-même

Made for Cinéastes de notre temps series. In 1964, several French New Wave auteurs discuss the success and crisis of the wave. Featuring Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rozier, Jacques Demy, Agnès Varda, Jean Rouch, and many others.

Release Date1964-05-19

Charactersd Self

Vote Count2

Cinema Redefined: Jacques Rivette's L'Amour Fou Revisited

New interviews with star Jean-Pierre Kalfon; writer/director and Rivette collaborator Pascal Bonitzer; Rivette biographer Antoine de Baecque; critic/historian Sylvie Pierre; and archival footage of Jacques Rivette.

Release Date2024-04-02

Charactersd Self

Conversation entre Jean-Luc Godard et Jacques Rivette

Release Date2017-07-07

Charactersd Self

Festivals 66 Cinéma 67

Wanderings during the Cannes and Hyères 1966 festivals. Interviews with Louise de Vilmorin, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Bresson, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Louis Comolli, François Truffaut. Lunch on the grass of the Cahiers du cinéma, young onlookers on mopeds, children from the surrounding villages, the film portrays an era, a cinephilia, a cinema still in balance between art and industry.

Release Date1967-05-30

Charactersd Self

Out 1

Following the May 1968 civil unrest in France, two theater groups rehearse plays by Aeschylus while two solitary individuals wander the Parisian streets hustling the populace for cash.

Release Date1971-10-09

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count8

Vote Count2

La Belle Noiseuse

The former famous painter Frenhofer lives quietly with his wife on a countryside residence in the French Provence. When the young artist Nicolas visits him with his girlfriend Marianne, Frenhofer decides to start again the work on a painting he long ago stopped: La Belle Noiseuse. And he wants Marianne as model.

Release Date1991-09-04

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count295

Le quadrille

The film features five actors, two women and three men. According to Rivette, “It ran 40 minutes and nothing happens. It’s just four people sitting around a table, looking at each other. After ten minutes, people started to leave, and at the end, the only ones who stayed were Jean-Luc and a girl.”

Release Date1950-08-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

The Diversion

Paris rendered as a labyrinth of intrigues. Filmed in Parisian parks and on a terrace, LE DIVERTISSEMENT foreshadows the labyrinthine walks that would be a part of Rivette’s cinema, in which the characters look for, follow and find each other like in a romantic scavenger hunt.

Release Date1952-08-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Wuthering Heights

In 1930s south of France, young orphan Roch is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Lindon, a man of means who befits her stature. Roch vows to win her back.

Release Date1985-10-09

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count10

L'Amour fou

A troubled marriage is tested by the couple's involvement in a theatrical production of Racine’s Andromaque.

Release Date1969-01-15

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count40

Duelle (Une Quarantaine)

Two enigmatic women, both with a hidden but shared motive, separately arrive in Paris. As they navigate the city and their search progresses, various characters become entangled within their conflict, one which increasingly comes to take a fantastical turn. These characters too, driven by their own desires, strive for their own goals in the fight. From a Paris, drenched in an otherworldly ambiance, a tale of desire and power emerges through mystery.

Release Date1976-09-15

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count61

Out 1

While two theater groups rehearse plays by Aeschylus, two solitary individuals wander the Parisian streets hustling the populace for cash.

Release Date1990-12-15

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count62

Le Pont du Nord

Marie is just out from prison when she runs into Baptiste, a young paranoid needing companionship. In their pursuit of a mysterious briefcase carried by Marie's former lover, they roam the street of Paris, transformed into a giant board game, a maze spotted with mysterious traps, puzzling clues, and chance encounters. Maybe they are bricks in some sinister scheme, maybe they are playing a board game, maybe it's a fairy tale, maybe it's yet something else...

Release Date1982-03-24

DepartmentWriting

JobScenario Writer

Vote Count42

Céline and Julie Go Boating

Julie, a daydreaming librarian, meets Céline, an enigmatic magician, and together they become the heroines of a time-warping adventure involving a haunted house, psychotropic candy, and a murder-mystery melodrama.

Release Date1974-09-18

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count166

Around a Small Mountain

Vittorio stops to help Kate when her car breaks down on a mountain road. When they meet again, Vittorio discovers that Kate has rejoined a circus after a long time away. He begins to learn about the troupe's buried past and Kate's connection to it, while experiencing the magic of the circus.

Release Date2009-09-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count13

Their First Films

Release Date2004-05-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Story of Marie and Julien

Julien is a clockmaker with destructive impulses who decides to blackmail Madame X, a rich, attractive woman who traffics in stolen antiques. What he doesn’t know is that she has an even more dangerous secret that leads him to Marie, with whom he had fallen in love a year earlier.

Release Date2003-09-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count26

Va Savoir (Who Knows?)

After finding love and success in Italy, French actress Camille returns to Paris, the city she fled three years ago. She secretly dreads confronting her ex-boyfriend Pierre. Her new lover Ugo also has a secret, as he’s meeting with the intriguing Dominique while on his quest for an unpublished manuscript.

Release Date2001-09-28

DepartmentWriting

JobScenario Writer

Vote Count32

Va savoir+

Release Date2001-10-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

The Nun

In eighteenth-century France, a girl is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three mothers superior treat her in radically different ways, ranging from maternal concern, to sadistic persecution, to lesbian desire.

Release Date1967-07-26

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count104

Noroît (Une Vengeance)

After her brother was killed by a notorious all-female pirate gang, Morag dedicates her life to bringing the murderers to justice. Soon, she has become an important member of the pirate gang and has begun acquiring the loyalty of key members. Eventually, she makes her move and challenges the leader, a demi-god, known as "The Daughter of the Sun."

Release Date1976-11-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count20

Bérénice

Shot in 16mm, Berenice is Rohmer’s first finished film. The film is based on a story by Edgar Allen Poe about a man who becomes obsessed with his fiancé’s teeth. The film was shot at Andre Bazin’s house by Jacques Rivette. Rivette also edited the film.

Release Date1954-01-01

DepartmentEditing

JobEditor

Vote Count24

The Duchess of Langeais

At a Spanish cloister, a celebrated French general of the Napoleonic Wars recognizes the voice of one of the nuns and recalls how, five years ago, she was the Duchess of Langeais, and he her most persistent suitor.

Release Date2007-03-28

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count26

The Kreutzer Sonata

Some time after marrying a sensual girl, Pozdnychev realizes the only link to his spouse is that of physical love. When a violinist with whom his wife plays regularly the “Sonata to Kreutzer” appears, the young woman blooms in a new passion. From then on, her husband is eaten away by jealousy.

Release Date1956-01-01

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Vote Count24

Joan the Maid II: The Prisons

Jeanne has succeeded in lifting the siege of Orléans and Charles has been crowned King of France. However, she is injured in an attempt to take Paris, weakening her position at court. Captured by the enemy and put on trial, she finds both her life and the sanctity of her body at stake.

Release Date1994-02-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count21

Gang of Four

Anna, Joyce, Claude, and Cécile are four young actresses sharing a Paris apartment while attending intense acting workshops led by their demanding teacher Constance. As they rehearse scenes and navigate the tensions of living together, their personal lives begin to grow complicated when Joyce becomes involved with a mysterious older man whose presence slowly pulls the others into a web of secrets and suspicions, blurring the boundary between the roles they perform and the lives they're actually living.

Release Date1989-02-08

DepartmentWriting

JobScenario Writer

Vote Count23

Secret Defense

After biologist Sylvie discovers her brother Paul trying to steal a gun from her lab, he explains that he wishes to avenge the death of their father whom he suspects died at the hands of his business partner.

Release Date1998-03-18

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count23

Love on the Ground

A playwright offers two actress friends the chance to appear in his new, unfinished play, which consists of only one female part.

Release Date1984-10-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count15

Out 1: Spectre

Out 1: Spectre begins as nothing more than scenes from Parisian life; only as time goes by do we realize that there is a plot—perhaps playful, perhaps sinister—that implicates not just the thirteen characters, but maybe everyone, everywhere. Real life may be nothing but an enormous yarn someone somewhere is spinning...

Release Date1973-06-30

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count15

Aux quatre coins

Considered by Jacques Rivette as “practice films”, these early images offer us a view of the beginning of his artistic journey. AUX QUATRE COINS includes an original device that immediately sets itself apart from any other classic narrative form. These first experiments were silent films with intertitles. AUX QUATRE COINS does not have any intertitles but black images between a few shots. Rivette offers the viewer intriguing visual forms, encouraging him to imagine his own story. (Hervé Pichard)

Release Date1949-08-24

DepartmentCamera

JobDirector of Photography

Vote Count1

La Belle Noiseuse: Divertimento

More than just an abbreviated form of "La Belle Noiseuse", Rivette re-cut his footage with some important differences in point of view - this one being more from Marianne's point of view

Release Date1992-01-01

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count12

Paris s'en va

Before Le Pont du Nord Rivette films Paris s'en va, a short film of approximately 25 minutes. He works with the same actors and the same technical team on both films. Henry Chapier who produced the short: "At the beginning of the '80s nobody was interested in Rivette's highly imaginative project Le Pont du Nord. Therefore Rivette came up with a kind of 'transposition' of the themes of Le Pont du Nord in the shape of Paris s'en va. Just like a painter in the Renaissance who does a sketch for a future project."

Release Date1981-01-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4