Directing

Jacques Rivette

Born March 1, 1928 · Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France

Died January 29, 2016 · aged 87

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…

Known For

La Belle Noiseuse

La Belle Noiseuse · 1991

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.

Bérénice

Bérénice · 1954

MovieDramaMystery

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.

Céline and Julie Go Boating

Céline and Julie Go Boating · 1974

Céline and Julie Go Boating

MovieComedyDrama

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.

Va Savoir (Who Knows?)

Va Savoir (Who Knows?) · 2001

Va Savoir (Who Knows?)

MovieDramaComedy

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 Her new lover Ugo also has a secret, as he’s meeting with the intriguing Dominique while on his quest for an unpublished manuscript.

Lumière & Company

Lumière & Company · 1995

Lumière & Company

MovieDramaDocumentary

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.

The Story of Marie and Julien

The Story of Marie and Julien · 2003

The Story of Marie and Julien

MovieDramaRomance

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.

The Nun

The Nun · 1967

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.

Duelle (Une Quarantaine)

Duelle (Une Quarantaine) · 1976

Duelle (Une Quarantaine)

MovieDramaFantasy

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.

Filmography

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La Belle Noiseuse

La Belle Noiseuse · 1991

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.

Screenplay

Bérénice

Bérénice · 1954

MovieDramaMystery

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.

Editor

Céline and Julie Go Boating

Céline and Julie Go Boating · 1974

Céline and Julie Go Boating

MovieComedyDrama

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.

Director

Va Savoir (Who Knows?)

Va Savoir (Who Knows?) · 2001

Va Savoir (Who Knows?)

MovieDramaComedy

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.

Scenario Writer

Lumière & Company

Lumière & Company · 1995

Lumière & Company

MovieDramaDocumentary

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.

Director

The Story of Marie and Julien

The Story of Marie and Julien · 2003

The Story of Marie and Julien

MovieDramaRomance

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.

Director

The Nun

The Nun · 1967

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.

Writer

Duelle (Une Quarantaine)

Duelle (Une Quarantaine) · 1976

Duelle (Une Quarantaine)

MovieDramaFantasy

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.

Director

L'Amour fou

L'Amour fou · 1969

MovieRomanceDrama

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

Director

Va savoir+

Va savoir+ · 2001

MovieComedyRomance

Director

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights · 1985

Wuthering Heights

MovieMysteryDrama

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.

Screenplay

Paris Belongs to Us

Paris Belongs to Us · 1961

Paris Belongs to Us

MovieMysteryDrama

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.

Director

Le quadrille

Le quadrille · 1950

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.”

Director

Out 1

MovieMysteryDrama

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

Writer

Noroît (Une Vengeance)

Noroît (Une Vengeance) · 1976

Noroît (Une Vengeance)

MovieDramaFantasy

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."

Director

Joan the Maid II: The Prisons

Joan the Maid II: The Prisons · 1994

Joan the Maid II: The Prisons

MovieHistoryDrama

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.

Director

Merry-Go-Round

Merry-Go-Round · 1981

MovieMysteryDrama

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.

Director

Around a Small Mountain

Around a Small Mountain · 2009

Around a Small Mountain

MovieDramaRomance

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.

Director

Le Pont du Nord

Le Pont du Nord · 1982

Le Pont du Nord

MovieMysteryDrama

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...

Scenario Writer

Joan the Maid I: The Battles

Joan the Maid I: The Battles · 1994

Joan the Maid I: The Battles

MovieHistoryDrama

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.

Director

The Duchess of Langeais

The Duchess of Langeais · 2007

The Duchess of Langeais

MovieDramaRomance

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.

Director

The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle · 1950

The Glass Castle

MovieRomanceDrama

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.

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

Up, Down, Fragile

Up, Down, Fragile · 1995

Up, Down, Fragile

MovieMysteryDrama

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

Director

Out 1: Spectre

Out 1: Spectre · 1973

MovieMysteryDrama

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...

Director

Out 1

SeriesDramaMystery

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.

Director