36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup (2009)
Directed by Jacques Rivette

Film Review

After the darkly existential chamber piece Histoire de Marie et Julien (2003) and the brooding Balzac adaptation Ne touchez pas la hache (2007), Jacques Rivette's latest cinematic offering is a considerably lighter affair, a thinly sketched but nonetheless moving little romantic drama set in the world of the travelling circus.  Although the film has far less substance than we have come to expect from this still highly regarded relic of the French New Wave (it is in fact Rivette's shortest feature to date), it does have a subtle poignancy and charm that make it one of the director's most humane and perceptive films.

Here Rivette is reunited with Jane Birkin, the outlandish sixties sex symbol who was once considered Britain's answer to Brigitte Bardot (and still is in some quarters).  Birkin had previously featured in Rivette's memorable masterpiece La Belle noiseuse (1991) and, remarkably, scarcely looks a day older in this film.  Here she is cast opposite Sergio Castellitto, the charismatic Italian actor who starred in Rivette's Va savoir (2001).  Birkin and Castellitto are two of a kind, sympathetic actors who both speak with thick accents that do not allow us to forget their country of birth.  They each play a character who appears to be living in exile, prevented from finding his or her identity by a deep-seated reluctance to confront a troubled past.   She is the reluctant manager of a lacklustre theatrical troupe, he is the drifter.  Both are steeped in mystery which the other feels compelled to unravel, with the inevitable result that they fall in love.  Despite the slightness of the screenplay, Birkin and Castellitto both turn in a compelling performance and succeed in making their characters harrowingly believable.

36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup offers a simple tale, simply told, melancholy and humour woven into a gentle fable of love lost and love regained.  The main characters' search for identity and purpose is reflected in the circus's faltering attempt to find an audience as it makes its haphazard way along the highways and byways of France's achingly beautiful Languedoc region.  The potent circus motif serves two functions: to connect the protagonists with their past and help resurrect the spirits of past lovers, and to remind us that our lives, for all their apparent complexity, are really no more than brief circus acts.  In making this film, the eighty-year old Rivette is perhaps acknowledging that his time in the ring is almost over, that it will soon be time for him to take his bow and let other acts take his place.  All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players...

Film Synopsis

A small circus troupe is about to embark on its summer season when its owner dies suddenly.  Realising that their livelihoods are in peril, the members of the circus get in touch with their boss's estranged daughter Kate and urge her to take over the management of the circus.  Kate has every reason to turn down the invitation.  Fifteen years ago, her lover Antoine was accidentally killed by her father and she abandoned the circus not long afterwards.  To the troupe's surprise, Kate agrees to drop everything and return to the circus.  On her way back, Kate has a flat tyre and is rescued by an Italian man, Vittorio.  Fascinated by Kate's life, the latter decides to spend the next few days in her company.  Vittoria is intrigued to find out why Kate left the circus and why she is now so eager to resume her old way of life...