Jacques Rivette

“Rivette is arguably the greatest artist working in cinema today.”
– MK Raghavendra

Rivette seems to be the least discussed of the bande de cinq, and I would suspect the least often seen. He is described by Marc Chevrie as being “vaguely legendary but largely unknown.” His films are famously long and meandering, with plots that circle around and at times avoid narrative certainty. Championed by film critics Jonathan Rosenbaum and David Ehrenstein, and critical theorist Gilles Deleuze, he appears unapproachable at a glance.

His defenders often point out that he created the short film, Le Coup de...