#duelle

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Jacques Rivette - Duelle (1976)

[sacredwhores]

Jacques Rivette - Duelle (1976)

[roseillest]

DUELLE (1976) dir. JACQUES RIVETTE

[roseillest]

DUELLE (1976) dir. JACQUES RIVETTE

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Jacques Rivette's women - Duelle (1976)

[thethirdbear]

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Partageons mon rendez-vous lectures #8-2025 & critiques

Voici mes critiques littéraires sur Livres à profusion.  Duelle de Barbara Abel Duelle de Barbara Abel – Editions Le Livre de Poche Les Derniers Jours de nos pères de Joël Dicker Les Derniers Jours de nos pères de Joël Dicker – Editions de Fallois En lecture, un gain concours, La nounou de Evelyn Piper La nounou d’Evelyn Piper – Editions Denoël Présentation de l’éditeur Joey a huit ans. Deux ans…

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Movie Review | Duelle (Rivette, 1976)

Considering that:

a) I am allergic to arthouse cinema that plays things close to its chest and seeks to keep one’s pulse as low and even as possible;

b) I watched this when I was rather tired and was maybe half as attentive as I might have been in other circumstances; and

c) I have not kept my intellectual muscles in tiptop shape when it comes to grappling with headier fare;

I found this far from unpleasant to soak in. This has the sense of a very elaborate plot in the guise of a neonoir, at least until you get a wizard duel of sorts at around the midpoint, when perhaps the references to The Big Sleep that the description on the Criterion Channel touts starts to seem a little misleading. But even before then, this is not so much noirish in atmosphere or emotion as it affords the tropes of noir to the characters as tools for them to navigate through this story. Even aside from the magic powers and what have you, the characters are not so much in a noir as they are acting out a noir ritual.

Or at least that’s the feeling I’m getting coming to this with my only previous experience with Rivette’s work a viewing of Le Pont du Nord over a decade ago. That movie I remember giving its plot a game-like quality, its characters moving through Paris like pieces on a board. This doesn’t have that sense of open geography, but the characters seem to act in the same manner, even if some of these are less restrained by the rules than others. 

The comparatively insular quality is enhanced by a glistening gold lighting scheme, that gives the environments a veneer of jewelry, even the catacombs of the Paris Metro when the movie heads down there. And all the intriguing costumes and hats sported by the characters feel all the more decadent as they make their way through these settings. And there is a sense of momentum and consequence by the end, even if like most of the proceedings I was left scratching my head. 

I fully concede I’m clinging to the movie’s surface and a lot of it went over my head, but I didn’t mind too much.