This is an adventure in narrative fiction involving two pairs of heroines and an old dark house in a fairytale that spins around both the protagonists and the audience. One pair (Ogier and Pisier) forms a phantom triangle with a widower in the house of fiction that Berto and Labourier enter. What ensues is a strange, hieratic tragedy borrowed from Henry James. Rivette’s film is in turn magical, joyous and unsettling and, at times, all three at once, a journey through the movie experience itself, an exhilarating display of parodies and genre pastiches forming what amounts to a meditation on the art of illusion. The four female lead actresses collaborated to the writing of the script. Jacques Rivette won the Special Prize of the Jury at the Locarno International Film Festival (1974). Further viewing: ‘Daisies’ (1966) directed by Vera Chytilova [2081701, VHS], from which Rivette took inspiration for ‘Celine and Julie’. Also available on VHS.
Credits: Producer, Barbet Schroeder ; director: Jacques Rivette ; writer, Eduardo de Gregorio ; photography, Jacques Renard ; music, Jean-Marie Senia ; editor, Nicole Lubtchansky.
Cast: Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier, Barbet Schroeder.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
X000279
Languages
English
French
Subject category
Foreign language films
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)