Well, a bunch are on DVD in various shorter states in the US: The Story of Marie and Julie, Wuthering Heights, the two Joan of Arc movies, Gang of Four, Va Savoir, Secret Defense, and in Blockbusters (sigh), his 2008 masterpiece Don’t Touch the Axe.
His best work, as you hint, is sadly the most unavailable. I understand that New Yorker is working on an edition of Celine and Julie Go Boating, and Criterion is working on an unnamed Rivette film…
This is great news. Maybe “Paris nous appartient”? In the UK it’s available, so maybe it’ll make it’s way over. Or “Merry Go Round”.
Daniel, are there any “clues” to this unnamed Rivette film? I know they’re working on Paris Belongs to Us, but anything else would be astounding. However, I cannot wait any longer for Out 1 or L’amour fou, I have acquired copies online with English subtitles, and will be watching them when I have the time.
Hi Eli,
I know no more than you—in fact, I hadn’t known it was PARIS BELONGS TO US they were working on, though I too followed the same thought as Charlotte and thought it was related to the BFI edition in the UK. Obviously my vote would be for OUT 1, and barring that, L’AMOUR FOU, but I have to admit I would be tempted by a double-disc version of DUELLE/NOROIT, like the French DVD…
Had to go downtown to get Paris nous appartient on VHS.
I tried to get ANY Rivette last year for a class I was teaching. I couldn’t find anything except VA SAVOIR. I even went so far as to call friends at the French Embassy in Washington to borrow something from them and all of his work was MISSING from their collection! I finally found THE NUN and CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING on old VHS copies and I had them transferred.
I have no idea why the USA has such an embargo on his work.
Well, it may not end up being Paris Belongs to Us, I believe it was announced a long time ago and nothing has been heard since. No one knows anything about this secretive plan, how Rivetteian!
Wait where do you purchase Paris Belongs to Us and is it region 1 compatiable?
There’s a R2 BFI disc.
Here in the UK BFI have released R2 versions of Paris nous appartient and Celine et Julie …
Artificial Eye have released La Belle Noiseuse, Histoires de Marie et Julien, Ne touchez pas a la hache and Va savoir
Bluebell released L’amour par terre, La bande des quatre and Hurlevent (Wuthering Heights adaptation) last year
There’s a French box set that also contains Secret defense (http://tinyurl.com/cduq8x)
A German box set has Duelle and Merry-go-Round (but German subs only) plus Claire Denis’ documentary on Rivette (http://tinyurl.com/dh9w6c)
This French site seems to sell Noroit and Duelle (in a 2DVD set), Haut / bas / fragile, and La religieuse (http://tinyurl.com/d4g7nq)
Apparently there is a Japanese-subbed version of Le pont du nord
(I haven’t bought any of these, btw – caveat emptor)
Rosenbaum writes of the DVD situation for Rivette in this article (http://www.cinema-scope.com/cs29/col_rosenbaum_dvd.htm) – a little out of date now.
Incidentally, apart from the UK DVDs listed above, which are easy to find and have English subtitles, some of the difficult-to-find DVDs are available as torrents on sites such as Freakyflicks or emule (I’ve seen Le pont du nord, Duelle, Noroit, Out 1(!), Haut/Bas/Fragile and Secret Defense in transfers of varying quality).
Hope this is helpful.
Well, if only there were more of his films available in the UK- i think i’ve only seen 9, no duds among them, this is very poor representation for such a major director, L’Amour Fou and Out One have been high on my must-see list for far too long. They get very high ratings here at auteurs i notice, vying for top spot even.
Paris nous appartient is on Cinemoi in the UK soon. This week, I think.
New thread revival because we don’t seem to have any worthy individual Rivette topics unless his name is next to other, more popular French directors. Now that I’ve also seen Pont du Nord, I’m yearning for more even if it’s download material as always.
La Belle Noiseuse – Definitive Edition was released by Artificial Eye which contains the abridged version of the film, Divertimento.
Here is my Jacques Rivette list. My favorite is the last portion of the Joan of Arc movie.
Dimitris, what did you think of Le Pont? Did you get it catch it on film?
“Le Pont du Nord” is a kind of miniature “Out 1.” It has a similar mysterious search broght about by the discovery of purloined letters but only two principle characters are involved. I tend to think he wanted to make it in order to include Pierre Clementi in the overall design. Clementi was one fo the principle performers in “Les Idoles” by Marc’O — an incalculably important inspiration to Rivette. Clementi would have been in “Out 1” but he was in prison at the time.
I saw “Out 1” here in L.A. ant a screenign that was stretched over two days. The assemly, idspersal and reassemly of the audience to watch each part (It’s in 8 easuly digestible episodes) was part of the fun. But I have no doubt a DVD rendition would be just as enjoyable.
On DVD I’ve managed to colled “Secret Defense,” “Wuthering Height” and “L’Historie de Maire et Julien.” The version of “Jeanne la Pucelle” that Facets is selling is scandalously cut — and not by Rivette. Avoid it.
I have burns of “Le Pont du Nord” “Don’t Touch the Axe” and “Noroit” The major Rivette that is long overdue for DVD is “Duelle.”
Duelle’s available on Amazon France in a set with Noirot for a very reasonable price, provided you speak French.
^ and English subs are easy enough to find for both of those films, should you need them. It’s a nice set which I picked up in Paris when it was released – and really, you can’t go wrong at that price.
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know where the one print in existence of Out 1 lives/is kept?
Apparently Around a Small Mountain is set to disappear from Netflix streaming on 4/4, so if anyone hasn’t caught that one yet, act fast.
Dusty B
Is there an ounce of hope that Rivette’s films will have greater circulation in the states soon? I understand his preferences especially for Out 1, to be shown in a cinema opposed vhs, dvd distrubtions yet is that blight any hopes from OUT 1 being widely distrubtuted on DVD or shown in american festivals?