Northwest Film Forum

Rivette's best-known film is an elaborate fairy tale with literary roots in Lewis Carroll, Henry James and Borges and cinematic roots in Méliès, Marienbad and Laurel and Hardy. In a film-with-in-a-film structure, memory and fantasy stretch an encounter between a librarian, Julie (Dominique Labourier), and a magician, Céline (Juliet Berto), into the past and the future while never leaving the present. More whimsical but no less labyrinthine than PARIS BELONGS TO US, the story involves a white rabbit chase through Montmartre, a mysterious old house in the Paris suburbs and strange potions in the form of little candies placed on the tongue. In the house, a haunting melodrama involving Bulle Ogier and Barbet Schroeder is being played out. Can Céline and Julie intervene to change the plot? A film that has retained its cult status, CÉLINE AND JULIE invites repeat viewings.