The incomparable Jacques Rivette passed away in January at the age of 87 – it has been a truly heartbreaking year and we’ve lost some of the most profound people in the arts – but he left behind a tremendous oeuvre and an undying impact through the French New Wave and his other, later films. Rivette was an impulsive director in that he combined his schizophrenic tendencies to create the best of both worlds; he had his straightforward, Hitchcockian side, and he had a side like Renoir, which would encourage him to let things go. It’s when he concentrated on the latter that Rivette utilized and encouraged the improvisation of his actors, a feature that sets his films apart from others.
READ MORE: Review: Jaques Rivette’s Newly Restored Masterpiece ‘Out 1’
In his tour de force, the 13-hour “Out 1: Don’t Touch Me,” Rivette divides the 760 minutes into eight vignettes which play out like a serial (a form that Netflix would eat up today). In the sixth installment of ‘Out 1,’ the blockade between fantasy and reality is obliterated, and star Jean-Pierre Léaud dives head first into Rivette’s social experiment on the streets of Paris. In a new video essay for Fandor editor Kevin B. Lee and film scholar Daniel Fairfax team up to explain the highlights of the unforgettable shots.
Léaud, though pugnacious in appearance, seems to be in a trance as he gallivants down the street reciting the Lewis Carroll-esque musings he clutches in his palm. As he repeats the text, Léaud becomes more and more entranced; the poet himself is hypnotized by his verse, and he then becomes swallowed by frenzy. As he walks and recites, two young boys follow him, they too are transfixed by the man’s hysteria. Rivette’s directing here defies boundaries. He has led his protagonist into an entirely new world and an entirely new film; they are together, somewhere between acting and delirium, unfurling a conspiracy and like a whirling dervish picking up everything in their path.
Whether or not you’re a fan of Rivette’s filmmaking, this film in particular, or Léaud’s acting, watch the video and you will undoubtedly be absorbed. If you have another twelve hours and fifty minutes, then give the rest of the film a chance too. [Fandor]