Customer Reviews

The Story of Marie and Julien

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jacques Rivette is one of the most under appreciated French film directors in history - and one of the most creative. He seems to dwell in a space known only to cinema, a world as changing, transparent, enigmatic, and transient as the camera's interplay with scenes and actors. His works do not fit into the expected mold of cinematic storytelling: his mind is far too fertile to follow roads previously taken. In 'Histoire de Marie et Julien' he suspends time (two and a half hours of it) to focus on the possibilities of the living and the dead and the planes of ambiguity incited by dreams. The story is less important than the questions it raises and the impact is powerful - if you just stay with him to the last frame.

Julien (Jerzy Radziwilowicz) is an antique clock restorer, living alone with his cat 'Nevermore', a man whose seemingly dull life is touched by his role as a blackmailer to a Madame X (Anne Brochet), a strangely beautiful woman with dark secrets contained in a doll, some documents, and a letter - all somehow in the hands of Julien. Julien meets Marie (Emmanuelle Béart), an ethereally beautiful woman who appears to be both present and not present, depending on the moment. Julien first dreams of his encounter with Marie (as does she) and then they actually meet. In no time Marie is moving into Julien's large and musty home, surrounded by clocks and other elements suggesting time. They have a passionate love life and fall in love. Julien shares his blackmailing project with Marie and Marie is the one who is 'the other woman' in delivering parcels to Madame X in return for cash installments. Madame X's dark secrets include the suicide of her sister Adrienne (Bettina Kee) who appears to Marie in what seems to be an established relationship of some sort. Marie's duplicitous nature becomes more apparent.

To tell more of this wondrous tale would destroy the slow unraveling of this mysterious love story: best it be seen by the viewers. All of the actors are extraordinarily fine. Rivette spends much of the movie with silences allowing the camera and actors to peruse the atmosphere, encouraging his characters to just interact with the clocks, the cat, the rooms, the parks, the mystery of that netherland of life after death. It is breathtakingly beautiful.

The DVD adds poignant interviews with both Rivette and Béart and for once the featurettes add tremendously to understanding this difficult film. Rivette shares with us that he initially wanted to make this film years ago with Leslie Caron and Albert Finney, but that because he wanted the story of the film to grow into telling itself during the filming, he could find no financial backers. Having just viewed the film it would be difficult to imagine the same story with a finer cast than we have here. An unforgettable experience. In French with English subtitles. Grady Harp, August 05

Subtle and incredibly beautiful. Really makes the heart ache in the end. Dreamlike and reminiscent of Poe, only perhaps more understated. I won'te spoil it by saying anything further, just watch it sometime and stick with it until the end.

One of my favorites about love, loneliness, pain, sacrifice, and release. A clock worker who is a blackmailer, finds a lovely, but enigmatic woman to fill the void in his life and to help him with the blackmail. He gets advice from his love as well as from the victim. His love sacrifices her relationship with him and then regains it, because of his love for her and hers for him. Lots of Edgar Allen Poe like leaden images but not bleak or dreary.

I liked this film far better in retrospect- particularly after watching the interview with the director Jacques Rivette, although the irritating interviewer couldn't begin to grasp the sagacious Rivette's quasi mystic vision. It's amazing how many of the directors of the French New Wave- Resnais, Roehmer, Rivette. Godard, Chabrol- are still making films 50+ years from when they started, and Rivette's current films may be the best now; are there any American directors who have made films for 50 years?

By non art film standards this is very long, and maybe even by those standards it still drags on. In fact, to many people this could be a yawner. However, the acting of- and the chemistry between- Emmanuelle Beart and Jerzy Radziwilowicz is riveting. There is much suspense here; and the minimalism of the film is classic new wave. The ghost(s)- caught between the living and the dead- (reminded me a little of the film "Ghosts" with Demi Moore) is interesting, mysterious and, perhaps, universal. However, the film still does drag a bit. However,the last half hour really speeds up, although the possible ghost redemption of Marie (Beart) is a little confusing. Moreover, steamy, erotic, and hauntingly verbal sex with a beautiful ghost does add interest to the first two hours. Five stars with more cutting- four stars as is.

*** This comment may contain a spoiler in the last sentence ***

As much as I like the previous Jacques Rivette's movies I've seen, I can't say the same about Marie and Julien. It is gorgeously shot and masterfully directed and 150 minutes long film does not seem too slow - Rivette possesses a secret on how to make every minute interesting and important but the story of Julien who divides his time between blackmailing a mysterious Madam X, fixing the old outsize clocks and trying to figure out the dark secrets and the reasons for a strange behavior of his beloved Marie (Emmanuelle Béart), simply did not move me at all. I could not feel any interest to Jerzy Radziwilowicz's Julien and even if I asked some question in the beginning as how he learned about Madam X secrets or what the clocks had to do with the story or why his cat's name was Nevermore, soon I stopped caring at all. The intimate scenes between him and Marie made me giggle (bad sign, not the reaction I would expect from myself ). I did not see any chemistry between Marie and Julien and it was hard for me to believe in their incredible love that would defy all laws of nature and go beyond the grave.

Although the back of the case erroneously reads 4:3, the film is shown at 1.85:1 (or thereabouts).

This movie is somewhat interesting but takes way too long to get anywhere. It wasn't worth the time I wasted watching it until the end.

This movie is just as long as American Gangster. The story premise is simple enough about Julien, a clock restorer who couldn't forget of his one-night stand with a woman named Marie. By coincidence, they bump onto each other. To cut the story short, the relationship is soon rekindled. Along the way, there's a subplot about Julien extorting or blackmail money from Madame X. Somehow, Madame X has a sibling rivlary with her sister, who then is also related to Marie somehow. As the story unfolds, we also find out that a year ago, Marie was going out with a man named Simon who then has since deceased in a car accident. Through narratives from the characters and hints given, we start to second guess ourselves if perhaps Marie is dead or perhaps, she's a ghost. Then, we also start to wonder if it's actually love between Julien and Marie, and what is real and what is not. Yes, we can probably say to ourselves that this is an art movie and therefore, it's a bit out of ordinary but then again, we needn't sit through a whopping 2.5 hours to understand what's written above. There's a lot of silence in this movie and it reminds me of sitting through a Japanese Noh performance where silence conveys a lot that's impossible to convey through words. An acquired taste.