Jacques Rivette directs Dominique Labourier, Juliet Berto and Bulle Ogier in this French arthouse classic where two women (possibly strangers) get lost in intimate, fantastical play around Paris.

The first 90 minutes of this are quite lovely. Lo-fi stalking and joyful muck around. We are in whimsical Fight Club / Mulholland Dr territory where personalities blend and merge and swap with minimal adherence to reality. Dominique Labourier really sells her character’s clownish physicality and she always achieves an extra bonus on top of what any scene tries to achieve. A walking tautology, her vivid performance is an all-timer. The second half gets lost down the rabbit hole. Trippy sucking candies, time warp houses, a white telephone drama on a loop. It gets ultra repetitive. Maybe if you were fully seduced by it then you would mop up all the rerun enigma with a big slice of bread. Here’s the thing though… I started out seduced and by the end bored and utterly distracted. I’m guessing this needs to be seen in a cinema where you are locked in.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Nah! It is enough…

I write regular features about live comedy for British Comedy Guide here https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/bobby_carroll/features/ and my own Substack https://substack.com/@edinburghlaughterbulletin