Photo of Pascal Bonitzer
Photo of Pascal Bonitzer

Pascal Bonitzer

“Dialogue is very important to me. It's like the backbone of my films.”

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    LA BELLE NOISEUSE

    JACQUES RIVETTE France, 1991

    To the scratch of a nib and the squelch of paint, Rivette’s sonorous and newly restored drama, immerses us in the artistic process, as a battle of wills unfolds between Michel Piccoli’s aging painter and Emmanuelle Béart’s reluctant muse. Roll up your sleeves because things are getting messy.

    GANG OF FOUR

    JACQUES RIVETTE France, 1989

    The most elusive of the French New Wave filmmakers won the Critics Prize at Berlin for this late-career masterwork, which combines everyday realism with a sneaking air of conspiracy. With characters trapped between reality and its representation, Gang of Four casts an enigmatic look at duality.

    JOAN THE MAID, PART 2: THE PRISONS

    JACQUES RIVETTE France, 1994

    In the conclusion to their two-part epic, the perfectly paired Jacques Rivette and Sandrine Bonnaire continue their atheistic approach to the life & death of Joan of Arc, chronicling Joan, the woman, at war and on trial. An elegant, understated, and uniquely human portrayal of the canonical figure.

    JOAN THE MAID, PART 1: THE BATTLES

    JACQUES RIVETTE France, 1994

    Casting the great Sandrine Bonnaire as his titular heroine, Jacques Rivette diverges from the stark expressionism of Dreyer and transcendent asceticism of Bresson for a rich and expansive six-hour, two-part epic. A singularly human and complicated character study, seen here in a new restoration.

    AROUND A SMALL MOUNTAIN

    JACQUES RIVETTE France, 2009

    The very last film by Jacques Rivette, the most consistently underrated of the French New Wave critics-turned-filmmakers (a group which includes François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard), Around a Small Mountain is a wry, gentle gem starring 60s icon Jane Birkin.

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