I viewed five films by Jacques Rivette before this one, so I'm accustomed to his bizarre style and, overall, I love it. However, Merry-Go-Round, the sixth Rivette film that I've viewed is very poor compared to the others. The "storyline" is a muddled mess that didn't make sense for me either on a "straight", literal level, or on a symbolic level.

Why would any sane man fly from NYC to Paris just because an ex-girlfriend sent him a telegram asking him to do so?Why didn't anyone, especially sis Leo, call the cops after Elizabeth was kidnapped? Why would Leo and the attorney's secretary enter an abandoned building alone to rescue Elizabeth, i.e., without the cops? After escaping kidnapping, why would Elizabeth enter back into negotiations with the very people who kidnapped her? After Leo and Ben fail to find Elizabeth at the graveyard, they are counting pennies between them to see if they have enough for cab fare back to the hotel, suggesting that they came from Rome and NYC, respectively, with no cash on them. Who would travel so far from home being absolutely broke? Why was it necessary for the fake Mr Danvers to be a psychic medium? The segments of Leo running in the woods, and the anonymous girl running in the sand dunes didn't fit in with the film in any way.

Overall, the screenplay here looks like an assemblage of elements that were randomly picked out of a hat.

This film is truly unworthy of an otherwise GREAT filmmaker like Jacques Rivette. If you've never seen a Rivette film before, then do not start here, because this film is a POOR representative of his work.

Elizabeth sends telegrams to her old boyfriend Ben in New York City and to her younger sister Leo in Rome to join her in Paris, where she is selling her dead father's estate. When Ben and Leo arrive, a mysterious adventure begins.

What is the "mysterious adventure"? No one knows for sure. The film is somewhat surreal, with a blend of French and English, and the occasional group of jazz musicians thrown in for no apparent reason other than to add something artsy to this art film.

Star Maria Schneider became famous for portraying Jeanne opposite Marlon Brando in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Last Tango in Paris" (1972); and the Girl in Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Passenger" (1975),opposite Jack Nicholson. So, depending on how you look at it, she was coming off some big successes, or on her way out. She is playing opposite Joe Dallesandro, who may be a major cult figure (given his connections to Warhol, the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed) but is not a household name.

This one is mainly for Rivette completists. There are gaps in the plot and a lack of commitment on the part of some actors, notably Schneider which ensure that this film will not be counted among Rivette's greatest. I watched it on YouTube as part of my review of his works following the news of his death. The story is not weak--it's an amalgam of film noir and road movie--but the way it is told, in a slap dash manner leaving too much up to chance, disappointed me.

The great pleasure in Merry-go-round is provided by John Surman's mournful noodlings on bass clarinet, which often seem more interesting than what the actors are doing. Joe Dallesandro exercised a fascination on more than one filmmaker (I remember how Louis Malle used him in Black Moon, and his films with Andy Warhol are still around) and he does here too. His mad chase through the woods pursued by a knight in armor recalls the fight scene in Black Moon.