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A review by wmbogart
Jacques Rivette by Mary M. Wiles
Shorter than I'd like! A large portion of the book is spent summarizing each film's narrative. That's (unfortunately) necessary, as many of these films still aren't widely distributed or shown today, but it does crowd out some of the deeper analysis.
The result is a dense overview that packs in a lot of notes on the antecedents referenced in Rivette's films. But because the book's scope is so wide, many are briefly touched upon rather than fully fleshed out for the reader. Again, a necessity of the format - the author's pieces and interviews on Rivette elsewhere (e.g. in Cine-Files) are great!
Wiles writes that Rivette "permits cinema to follow its dramatic inclination while paradoxically placing this on display." His films "protest the reintegration of art into the mundane world of utilitarian consumerism by promising a restoration of aura through recourse to secularized ritual." I think this is a large part of what I respond to in his films - the recurring offering of what Wells refers to as "radical alternatives to hegemonic constructions."
These constructions, of governance and femininity and culture, are questioned throughout his filmography. Wiles highlights Rivette's relationship to the theater in his films. His plots often involve performers (typically women) who are made aware of something clandestine. In collaboration with one another and through a combination of performance and magic, these protagonists, and the film's crew, come to uncover truths previously hidden from the public.
The theater is a venue for performance, investigation, and labor. In his theatrical "staging" of performances and scenarios, Rivette's camera implicates the viewer as an active participant in the uncovering of these truths. As with any theater's productions of a pre-established play, Rivette changes and updates prior works (plays, novels, films, and myth) in his stagings. Wiles highlights these prior works and their relevance in connection with Rivette's films. That, as a viewer who loves and feels these films deeply but isn't all that knowledgeable otherwise, is the value of this book and other scholarly studies around Rivette. It isn't the whole story, but with films as complex as these, how could it be?
The result is a dense overview that packs in a lot of notes on the antecedents referenced in Rivette's films. But because the book's scope is so wide, many are briefly touched upon rather than fully fleshed out for the reader. Again, a necessity of the format - the author's pieces and interviews on Rivette elsewhere (e.g. in Cine-Files) are great!
Wiles writes that Rivette "permits cinema to follow its dramatic inclination while paradoxically placing this on display." His films "protest the reintegration of art into the mundane world of utilitarian consumerism by promising a restoration of aura through recourse to secularized ritual." I think this is a large part of what I respond to in his films - the recurring offering of what Wells refers to as "radical alternatives to hegemonic constructions."
These constructions, of governance and femininity and culture, are questioned throughout his filmography. Wiles highlights Rivette's relationship to the theater in his films. His plots often involve performers (typically women) who are made aware of something clandestine. In collaboration with one another and through a combination of performance and magic, these protagonists, and the film's crew, come to uncover truths previously hidden from the public.
The theater is a venue for performance, investigation, and labor. In his theatrical "staging" of performances and scenarios, Rivette's camera implicates the viewer as an active participant in the uncovering of these truths. As with any theater's productions of a pre-established play, Rivette changes and updates prior works (plays, novels, films, and myth) in his stagings. Wiles highlights these prior works and their relevance in connection with Rivette's films. That, as a viewer who loves and feels these films deeply but isn't all that knowledgeable otherwise, is the value of this book and other scholarly studies around Rivette. It isn't the whole story, but with films as complex as these, how could it be?