Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous appartient)
Directed by Jacques Rivette
Written by Jacques Rivette and Jean Gruault
1961/France
Ajym Films/Les Films du Carrosse
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] “Everyone loves a conspiracy.” ― Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code[/box]
This film mystified me – and not in a good way.
The plot is convoluted and I may not have caught all of it. The story frequently touches on the death of Juan, who committed suicide before it began – or was it murder.? Our heroine, Anne, is a young student who really doesn’t feel like studying for her Shakespeare exam.
Anne meets Gerard who is attempting to stage a production of Shakespeare’s Pericles, which is rarely performed and apparently with good reason. Gerard has many difficulties with finding a space to rehearse and getting his actors to stay. Eventually, the inexperienced Anne is given a role. She and Gerard evidently share an attraction but he seems permanently tied to the “beautiful and hard” Terry.
Anne decides to help Gerard by finding a disappeared tape of the music that Juan wrote for the play. In her investigation, she meets Philippe, who warns her that Gerard and all around him are in great danger. As the story progresses, the mystery builds to a worldwide conspiracy – or not.
[box] Tagline: You Either Dig This Film Or You Don’t[/box]
As I was watching, I kept remarking out loud “this is the weirdest movie I have ever seen”. And that is really saying something considering the many weird movies in my catalogue! It’s like one giant inside joke that I simply didn’t “get”. Maybe I need to see it again. I doubt I will bother. This is considered to be a seminal film of the new wave and David Lynch fans may love it.
Clip with cameo by Jean-Luc Godard
