one of those movies that’s like, where have you been all my life? i think we need to officially de-canonize chabrol so that there is no ambiguity who the third new wave guy is. it’s rivette!
this movie opened up so much for me, first just in terms of seeing its influence everywhere. probably trite to say there’s no Lynch without this, for sure. but it also completely opened up my understanding of what this style of french cinema can do. I’ve never seen this combination of youthful vitality, joyousness, improvisation, and like actual, positive feminity, not a weird caricature or sad character study that you get in Vivre sa vie, etc… french films from this era are youthful and energetic, no doubt, but it’s always some weird crime story or formal experiment. these two ladies are absolutely timeless: they’re walking around just outside my apartment, wearing the same clothes. I recognized them; the two are startingly real, and that realness, combined with the naturalism of the improvisation, made me fall HARD for the redhead. I felt so powerfully attracted to her it felt tragic to remember that she must be like a million years old already.
the narrative and everything was all fine. I’m sure there’s a lot to get out of the themes of femininity, voyeurism, improvisation, melodrama, ambiguity, doubling…I’m just so dazzled and charmed I can’t think about anything else.