"Duelle" Actorism by Jacques Rivette

“Duelle” synopsis

A fantasy set in modern-day Paris, where the Queen of the Sun and the Queen of the Moon face off over a magical stone that will allow them to live on earth. Inspired by Gerard de Nerval's novels, Jacques Rivette envisioned a four-part series called ``La Daughters of Fire'' that included a love story, a crime drama, a western, and a musical comedy. is one of those “crime dramas.” He expressed a fantastical, fairy-tale-like subject matter with challenging film noir elements, achieving a surreal and poetic beauty. The two female duelists are played by Juliette Berthe and Bulle Ogier, who are regulars in Rivette's films.

Index

• Woman of the Sun/Woman of the Moon
• actorism
• Juliette Berto and Bulle Ogier
• Lumiere of Ruin

Woman of the Sun/Woman of the Moon

Jacques Rivette's ``Duelle'' (1976) begins with a shot of a female hotel staff member playing with a ball. It's already a strange sight to see a hotel staff member with too much time on his hands riding a ball, but the essence of this movie is condensed in the bizarre development in which the male clown who was supporting the woman's body performs a backwards handstand rotation. ing. Unbalanced ball riding and dance gestures that make full use of the body. Rivette's circular and theatrical motifs are symbolized in this first scene.

Jean Babile plays the clown who performs a backwards handstand rotation. Babile, who is known for premiering the ballet ``Youth and Death'' based on Jean Cocteau's libretto, made a major contribution to Cocteau's fantasy, which is thought to be the origin of ``Duelle,'' as she moves between capricious and innocent goddesses. are doing. This is a world where the Sun Woman and the Moon Woman breathe in the same space. The goddesses were allowed to walk on this earth for only 40 days during the winter. The goddesses often disappear into the shadows. A shadow covering the moon. magical jewels. day and night. past and present. matter and spirit. Light and shadow. inside and outside. Immortality and destruction. These concepts, while repelling each other, fuse together in this ``landscape of a parallel world.''

"Duelle" © 1976 SUNSHINE / INA.Tous droits réservés.

``Duelle'' is one of the crime stories that was supposed to be produced as a four-part series inspired by Gerard de Nerval's novels. This work and `` Norowa '' (76), which are positioned as junctures in Rivette's filmography, are elegantly and radically engraved with previous and future methodologies. There are no scenes depicting ``theater'' like ``Crazy Love'' (69) in this work. It has also moved away from the extremes of improvisational acting that left everything to the actors' attributes, as in the legendary 13-hour masterpiece ` `Out One '' (1971). Nevertheless, in this film, theater and improvisational acting are ``internalized'' into the film as the actors' gestures. Additionally, Jean Vienel, the composer for Jean Renoir's films, is often seen playing the piano in the corner of the frame. Here, Vienel experiments with improvised music and the ``effect'' that music has on the actors' performances.

Also, in terms of a goddess summoned from mythology and living in the present, I can't help but feel that the project is reminiscent of the project for ``Phoenix,'' starring Jeanne Moreau, whose production was aborted at the last minute. ``Phoenix'' was a project based on Sarah Bernhardt, a stage actor from the Belle Époque era, and depicts a female actor living in a large theater in Paris who has abandoned the world. Viva (Bulle Ogier), the woman of the sun, and Leni (Juliet Berto), the woman of the moon. In this work, women from the mythical world are similarly summoned. In front of these two noble and capricious goddesses, the traces of the dream of a project that ended in illusion are blurring. Rivette says she really wanted to make a winter movie. ``Duelle'' is a cold winter movie that feels like digging up the grave of a dream.

actorism