I'm not very familiar with Rivette, but I did enjoy the other two films I've seen by him (three, technically, counting his Joan of Arc movie as two). This one - I did not enjoy it. It's as purposeless and indifferent as Celine and Julie Go Boating, but nowhere near as enjoyable. It has a handful of enjoyable moments - mostly in its song and dance numbers (it's a musical - when Rivette feels like it). And the three stars, Nathalie Richard, Marianne Denicourt and Laurence Côte, are all quite cute. But, man, does this go absolutely nowhere for nearly three hours. I can only watch Richard dance around like a dope for two hours, tops. Anna Karina also has a small part. I feel like I deserve a trophy for getting through this - I felt like giving up 40 minutes in and I really wish I had.

At university I was once obliged to reply in the form of an essay to the question 'Would Moby Dick be a better or worse book if the scientific sections were omitted'. My reply was along the lines of 'If the scientific parts were omitted Moby Dick would be a shorter bad book' and that's how I often feel about Rivette who seems incapable of shooting anything less than three hours - nothing wrong with that, witness Gone With The Wind - which is okay EXCEPT his ideas are usually worth no more than forty minutes. He exemplifies most of the things wrong with the New Wave, the abrupt cutting in the middle of a scene, characters appearing on the other side of town moments after walking out of frame, insufficient 'back story' and/or information. A typical example in this film. Roland confronts Ninon in her apartment and accuses her of stealing a set of documents (which we have in fact seen her do). She tells him to close his eyes, he obliges, she retrieves the documents from where she had hidden them, tells him to remain seated with his eyes closed and - wait for it - LEAVES the apartment, goes across town and gives the papers to Louise after which they go to a night club and dance. In the next shot Ninon enters her apartment Where, incredibly, Roland is STILL sitting with his eyes closed; in real time this would have to be several hours but Rivette shoots it in such a way as to give the impression of just a few minutes. Okay, call this high Art if you will but Me, I call it SLOPPY film making. The film is full of such sloppiness; it's billed as a Musical yet the first number occurs more than an hour into the story and such music as there is is banal in the extreme. The plot, or what passes for one, is our old friend the three disparate lives who somehow contrive to interweave; the three leading actresses are certainly competent or even slightly better than competent as are the males but there are too many dead ends like the faux suicide club which amounts to little more than a twenty minute self-contained set piece inside a three hour movie and serves no discernible purpose. Ironically I thoroughly enjoyed Rivette's Va Savoir and there are certainly echoes of that movie here in the library scenes and the dormer window utilised by Jeanne Balibar in the latter. On balance this is one to be endured rather than enjoyed.

One can see that the director really loves his actors, his work, and his audience. Perfect. The librarian girl subplot is so touching, especially the end! My only complain is "The voice of the father" - I understand, that it's supposed to sound "alienated", but it sounds completely unnatural, like it was just an imagination of Louise, or a tape playing. Anyway, this is a beautiful film. 10 stars.