Va Savoir

Would be a treat at 1 hour 45 minutes...but not at 2 hrs 34 mins
At 154 (!) minutes, "Va Savoir" could use about about 40+ minutes of judicious editing. I'm open to French cinematic experiences - there's nothing like the thrill of discovering gems like "Read My Lips" or "The Dinner Game" - but at 2 hours 30 minutes plus, director Jacques Rivette here strains the patience of even the most hardened of cinephiles.

That's not to say it isn't fun to watch Jeanne Balibar ooze her way across the screen - she's such a silky-smooth, enchanting presence. And it's a treat to see Sergio Castellitto, who was spectacular in the winning 'Mostly Martha.' And how about an actor who can play leads in German (as he did in 'Martha') and Italian and French (he does both with aplomb here in 'Va Savoir')? This is one talented guy. But condensing the film down to a tighter 1 hr 45 minutes would have greatly increased the viewing experience.

Also, viewers should take care not to get freaked out during the first 1 - 2 minutes of the film. It's in...

come tu mi vuoi
I found this movie thoroughly enjoyable. The story line is simple and, in some way, rather unimportant - Camille, a well-known Parisian actress, is returning from Rome to act in front of her home audience in a play directed by her new lover Ugo. The play is Pirandello's Come Tu Mi Vuoi, a classical work (written for his lover Martha Abba) about a woman pinned between the yin and yang forces of reality and illusion. Throughout the film Rivette switches his camera between the play and Camille and Ugo's "reality" as if to ask us who are the real Camille and Ugo. What do they really want? What makes them tick? Can I, the spectator, enter their scriptless universe? Rivette (and his excellent actors) show us that delicateness can be robust and inventive, that desire for another can never be fulfilled and yet that the fulfillment does not really matter, because in the process of the struggle to achieve it we become alive and creative. What matters is style; style is substance. We are...

A Very Rare Kind of Pleasure
This film runs 154 minutes which is about the length of most epics. This however is not an epic and though an excellent story(once it gets going)it will tire and try the patience of even the most devoted Rivette loyalists. I like this film and am glad to have stayed the course with it but Rivette could have given us filmgoers a little more to look at(most shots are interiors of hotels or apartments) for those 2 1/2 hours. That said this film in every other way succeeds and on a very high level.
The story: In true new wave fashion the movie has no real starting point. The characters are at first met at some distance as we see them in their professional roles as actors. Slowly we see them in more relaxed settings and slowly we get to know them. The key word is slowly because for all the attention that must be paid the true payoffs don't start coming til approximately half way through the movie. It takes Rivette awhile (perhaps too long) to set up all the various...

Click to Editorial Reviews