The Video Essay is a joint project of MUBI and FILMADRID International Film Festival. Film analysis and criticism forged a new path with the arrival of the video essay. The limits of this discipline are constantly expanding; new essayists are finding innovative ways to study the history of cinema through moving images. This non-competitive section of the festival is designed to offer this format the platform and visibility it deserves.
This selection of seven video essays was programmed by the editors of Notebook and the programmers of FILMADRID. In the coming weeks, a video essay from the program will premiere each Friday on Notebook.
Jeu by Daniel Turner
When Jacques Rivette was asked about how he approached the filming of Out 1 (1971), he replied: “To begin with, the single idea was that of jeu in all the senses of the word: actors’ performance, the interplay of the characters, but also play in the sense of that children play and in the sense in which one talks about the free play of parts of a machine.” This video essay seeks to explore the endless manifestations of jeu throughout Rivette’s work between 1956 and 1981.