Paris Belongs to Us

"Rivette was more of a cinema nut than any of us, and his films prove that he is more of a moviemaker than any of us as well."--François Truffaut

Rivette's debut feature, Paris Belongs to Us, remains one of the landmarks of the French New Wave. Influenced by Fritz Lang, it was filmed piecemeal over several years (the Doniel family in Truffaut's The 400 Blows is seen exiting a theater showing Paris Belongs to Us before the film was completed!). Centering around an amateur theatrical troupe that becomes obsessed with a worldwide conspiracy, Paris Belongs to Us is a time capsule of late 50s/early 60s Left Bank paranoia and sets up the themes that Rivette continues to mine today. It's also one the director's numerous tributes to Paris, which (as Jonathan Rosenbaum writes) is, for Rivette, "a city of secrets and puzzles, of hidden alliances and privileged locations forming the nexus of magical encounters." Featuring cameos by Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Demy, Jean-Claude Brialy, and Rivette himself. (140 mins., 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.