Celine and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau: Phantom Ladies Over Paris)
Directed by Jacques Rivette
Rivette and female members of cast credited with writing the scenario; Eduardo de Gregorio (dialogue); stories in film within the film based on works by Henry James
1974/France
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
Julie: It doesn’t hurt to fall off the moon.
Nothing exactly happens in this three-hour film within a film. But somehow it kept me engaged.
Julie (Dominique Labourier) spots Celine (Juliet Berto) who is strewing a bunch of her possessions on the ground as she departs a park bench. Julie chases down Celine to return them. They become friends and go on all kinds of crazy adventures.
They form a unique bond that allows them to create a private film when they suck on hard candies. The film is a melodrama involving a man whose dying wife extracts a promise never to remarry. This story repeats itself and grows more bizarre as it progresses. Eventually Celine and Julie enter into the world of the melodrama and interact with the characters to change the outcome. With Bulle Olgier, Marie-France Pisier, and Barbet Schroeder as characters in the film within a film. Do not come expecting any boating.
Absent any coherent story, your enjoyment and mine will depend on how amusing you find the shenanigans of our two crazy young heroines. I found them moderately amusing. Perhaps not 3 hrs. 14 min. worth of amusing, but amusing. It’s kind of like a late Buñuel film if all the principal characters were female. No pretension involved. I won’t be watching again but I’m glad I saw it once.
