CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING

A film of magic, curses, intimacy, giddy magnetism, and the macabre world of haunted dreams, it’s not hard to see why CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING is Jacques Rivette’s most beloved dose of cinematic (and theatrical) pleasure. Incorporating allusions to everything from Lewis Carroll to Louis Feuillade, this is a film that invites, rather than insists, that we watch it more than once.

Librarian Julie (Dominique Labourier) invites nightclub performer Celine (Juliet Berto) into her life, and what begins as a chance encounter opens up a series of trapdoors. It’s not long before they are launched through the looking glass and straight into a labyrinthine comic adventure involving a haunted house, psychotropic candy, and a murder mystery as, all the while, the line between illusion and reality grows ever fainter. For every moment enjoyed in each other’s company, they discover a branching, doubling effect in what they see, juggling Beckettian loops, Lynchian liquid identity and sapphic subtext. CELINE AND JULIE is both one of the all-time-great hangout comedies and a totally unique, enveloping cinematic dream space that delights in the endless pleasures and possibilities of stories.