Céline and Julie Go Boating
NOT BY LYNCH continues tomorrow, Wednesday 22nd April at The Cinema Museum with Jacques Rivette’s Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974).
Below, Maria J. Pérez Cuervo situates the film within the classical literary tradition which Rivette and his cast and crew deviously rip up. Maria is the founder and editor of Hellebore magazine. She’s written about film and myth for Severin, Radiance Films and Indicator.
Tickets are available here, and come with a print booklet which includes the essay.
The Triumph of Whimsy
On the 4th of July 1862, Lewis Carroll first told the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on a boat trip that departed from near the aptly named Folly Bridge in Oxford. Over a century later, the heroines of Jacques Rivette’s Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) embark on a journey that culminates with another boat trip. Their journey started with another nod to Alice, with magic-seeking Julie (Dominique Labourier) following Céline (Juliette Berto), who embodies the chaotic energy of the white rabbit, down the rabbit hole of the streets of Montmartre, the Bohemian heart of Paris. Thus unravels one of the most interesting female friendships seen on screen, amusingly recognisable yet imbued with something ineffable and almost mystical. As they explore an unsolved mystery from the past, both women become ultimately interchangeable, mirror images of each other.
