Duelle

1976 [FRENCH]

Drama / Fantasy / Mystery / Romance

6
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 1958 2K

moon love triangle mystic surreal goddess

Plot summary

Two enigmatic women, Leni and Viva, separately arrive in Paris, each with a hidden but shared motive. As they navigate the city and their search progresses, various characters become entangled in their conflict, one which increasingly comes to take a fantastical turn. These characters too, driven by their own desires, strive to assert their influence in the struggle. In Paris, drenched in an otherworldly ambiance, an opaque tale of desire and power emerges through mystery and secrets.

Director

Jacques Rivette Photo
Jacques Rivette

Top cast

André Dauchy Photo
André Dauchy as A l'accordéon
Nicole Garcia Photo
Nicole Garcia as Jeanne / Elsa
Jean Wiener Photo
Jean Wiener as Au piano
Claire Nadeau Photo
Claire Nadeau as Sylvia Stern
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.08 GB
1280*690
French 2.0
NR
us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 0 min
Seeds 3
2.01 GB
1920*1036
French 2.0
NR
us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 0 min
Seeds 9

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by I_Ailurophile 7 / 10

Overall great, though the first half is markedly weaker than the second

I can hardly claim to have seen all of Jacques Rivette's films, but of those I have, there were a couple that I absolutely loved; there were a couple that I greatly enjoyed to one degree or another, but which I found to be either imperfect or maybe just too dense to entirely parse. 'Duelle,' I freely admit, I more plainly struggle with, to a very particular extent. The premise is a delight - and doesn't transparently come into play until the second half. All the while, from start to finish I should have anticipated that a filmmaker like Rivette would have approached the concept very obliquely, but he nonetheless caught me off guard here. For much of these two hours the plot seems to move sideways much more than it does forward, something like one-quarter step ahead for each one or two to the side, and the identities and relevance of characters are even more clandestine up until Rivette decides to starkly illuminate them. To be perfectly honest, this took me three tries to get through, because I fell asleep twice before the first hour had elapsed.It's splendidly well made. William Lubtchansky's cinematography is vivid and warm; Nicole Lubtchansky's editing is sharp. The costume design, hair, and makeup are lovely, and the filming locations and sets not truly any less so. Rivette illustrates a wonderfully artful eye for shot composition; just from a fundamental standpoint of the visuals this is a pleasure. The cast give tightly controlled performances of nuance and poise that I quite admire; Juliet Berto, Bulle Ogier, Hermine Karagheuz, and Nicole Garcia especially stand out. Moreover, I think the ideas that Rivette and his co-writers play with are fantastic. Would that, perhaps, the storytelling method method here weren't so extraordinarily sidelong - though in fairness, the narrative gels into a far more clear, cohesive, coherent form as the length advances. I don't think it would have stripped away any value from Rivette's artistic intent to have streamlined the course of events, allowing the first hour to bear the same qualities as the second, but then, he was the director, and not me.For my part, I favor 'Duelle' in exact proportion to the lucidity of the tale being conveyed. In the second half, more than not, the picture is superbly imaginative, and even outright dazzling as a story of fantasy is given a low-key, modern, somewhat minimalist flavor. There is no mistaking the plot, its development, or the characters' place therein, and the viewing experience is altogether spellbinding. It's unfortunate that this high level of perceived quality is necessary to compensate for the first half, which was kind of laborious. I don't think the script is very good at the outset about establishing what is going on, nor identifying its characters or where they belong in the tableau. There is so little discernible movement in the first hour that I had a hard time truly committing; that the early scenes are more or less given substance by later ones only means that the second half has to work extra hard to pick up the slack. Once more: I don't believe it would have taken anything away from the narrative vision for this to have been more balanced and well-rounded.Still, credit where it's due: for the excellence of its craftsmanship, and for the latent storytelling strength that very slowly comes into focus, I actually do very much like this feature. In fact, I think I like it more than Rivette's own 'Histoire de Marie et Julien,' which is something I enjoyed but found a smidgen beyond me. This 1976 movie is, after all, entertaining, engrossing, and quite satisfying. I just surely wish it were more even, for the work that we initially put in as viewers just to watch it is completely unnecessary. I appreciate the contributions of one and all, in front of and behind the camera, and when all is said and done the plot is terrific; I want only that the plot were tackled more uniformly when all is said and done. All things considered I won't begrudge anyone who looks at this and regards it more poorly, and I'm glad for those who find it even more rewarding. In light of its shortcomings I hardly thinking this is a title that demands viewership, though on the other hand, for those with the patience to endure the weaker first half, taken as a whole 'Duelle' is very much worthwhile. Be aware of its issues, in my opinion, but if one does have the opportunity to watch, at length I think it's deserving on its own merits.
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Reviewed by morrison-dylan-fan 7 / 10

"Dreams are the aquarium of the night."

Having seen at least one title by most of the other major directors of the French New Wave (FNW) movement, I was excited to find that Arrow has put out a Jacques Rivette, which I got for the upcoming ICM French Challenge.Just before the challenge kicked off,I got a really nasty flu. Wanting join in,I decided the film with the shortest run-time would be my first Rivette.

View on the film:

Complimented by interesting interviews from two members of the cast, Arrow present a splendid transfer, with the layered soundtrack being clean and the picture sharp, whilst retaining a film grain quality.

Working more from a script than he had done before, (lines of dialogue would be thrown out to the cast just before shooting began) the screenplay by co-writer/(with Eduardo de Gregorio and the directors wife Marilu Parolini ) directing auteur Jacques Rivette fittingly has a free-flowing rhythm that gives it the feeling of unfolding in the moment, as The Queen of the Night fights The Queen of the Sun for a diamond to stay on earth, which shines them into slithering round the deserted night life of Paris. Shattering whatever little reality there was, the writers keep the thread of the diamond fight as a solid line for the flights of fantasy to leap from.

Placing the two Queens (brilliantly played by Juliet Berto and Bulle Ogier) in a fight to stay on earth for more than 40 days a years, director Rivette & cinematographer William Lubtchansky take the starkness of the French New Wave (FNW) and shade it onto the Sci-Fi and Fantasy in the streets of Paris being laid to a minimalist appearance, as the Queens fight against a backdrop of lone, scattered figures round the streets of Paris. Kept backed by a nicely underscored improvised piano score from André Dauchy and Roger Fugen, Rivette blurs the lines between fantasy and reality with rough-edge FNW hand-held tracking shots following each grasp for the diamond. Symbolically breaking a mirror 70 mins in, Rivette superbly goes all-out for a surrealist stylisation final. Lighting the queens in shimmering colours, Rivette creates an incredibly eerie impression of the diamond fight taking place in reflections of a lost in time and dissociate society, as the Queens face their duelle.

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