Around a Small Mountain

Jacques Rivette’s enduring fascination with theatre takes a left turn in Around a Small Mountain: after his sombre Don’t Touch the Axe, who would have expected a circus film? This fresh, gently acidic comedy begins with a chance encounter between an Englishwoman, Kate (Birkin), and an Italian traveller, Vittorio (Castellitto). Learning that Kate is in the Languedoc region to rejoin her old circus troupe, Vittorio decides to hang around and discover the delights of the Big Top. He becomes equally intrigued by the secret that led Kate to leave the circus under a cloud, and by the troupe’s hangdog clowns and their somewhat Beckettian crockery routine. Of a piece with other Rivette musings on the stage, most recently 2001’s Va savoir, this succinct, elegantly acted film is very much a contemplation of performance and the art of timing, in life as on the stage. This is Rivette’s lightest film, without a doubt, but it’s possibly also one of his best. And it’s not often that you get to see Jane Birkin walking a tightrope. —BFI