L'Amour fou

"You emerge from it changed; it's a life experience as much as a film experience."--Jonathan Rosenbaum

One of the key films of the 1960s, L'Amour fou is Rivette's breakthrough--the film where he discovered (and perfected) his radical approach to improvisation, duration, and cinematic reality. Rivette's works are known (and notorious) for extended running times, but that investment of time creates possibilities for blurring the lines between story and reality in ways seldom experienced in cinema. Full of tension between art and life, L'Amour fou tracks the unraveling marriage of a stage director (Jean-Pierre Kalfon) and his wife (Bulle Ogier). It culminates in a masterly, hour-long scene of destruction and lovemaking as the couple holes up in their apartment. (255 mins plus intermission, 35mm)

Special thanks to David Schwartz and Livia Bloom from the Museum of the Moving Image and Francois Leloup-Collet from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy for the coordination of this long overdue tour.