BETWEEN THE WAVE AND REVOLUTION: THE RETURN OF RIVETTE’S LEGENDARY L’AMOUR FOU

6:30pm L’AMOUR FOU

Jacques Rivette (1969) 252 mins – Unclassified 15+

Finally rescued from oblivion by a meticulous digital restoration using an array of sources (the original 35mm materials for the four-hour cut were lost in a fire in 1973), this is one of cinema’s legendary “lost films”, the missing link in Rivette’s filmography between his first two feature-length works (Paris nous appartient and La religieuse) and the sprawling epics he was to become (in)famous for. Charting the breakdown of the relationship of a couple played by Bulle Ogier and Jean-Pierre Kalfon, alongside the filming of the production of a play (Racine’s Andromaque) within the film, Rivette masterfully intersects theatre, TV and cinema in an epic meditation on the relationship between art and life, highlighting and celebrating the resilience of cinema itself.

Preceded by Les photos d’Alix Jean Eustache (1982) 18 mins – Unclassified 15+. This César Award-winning short fiction – featuring Eustache’s son, Boris, and Canadian photographer Alix Cléo Roubuad – is a playful deconstruction of the powers of photography and all forms of image-making.

CTEQ ANNOTATION
New Waves for Old: L’Amour fou
by Joseph Sgammato