Duelle
Screening on Film
Directed by Jacques Rivette.
With Juliet Berto, Bulle Ogier, Jean Babilée.
France, 1976, 35mm, color, 121 min.
French with English subtitles.
With Juliet Berto, Bulle Ogier, Jean Babilée.
France, 1976, 35mm, color, 121 min.
French with English subtitles.
Although conceived as the second film in his planned “Les Filles du feu” quartet, Rivette filmed this puzzling work first. It posits a battle between goddesses of the sun and moon (Berto and Ogier), two supernatural beings who travel from present day Paris to an idealized pre-WWII setting as they seek control of a magic diamond. Dismissed on its release as a failed follow-up to the largely successful (and more accessible) Céline and Julie Go Boating, Duelle offers an incisive yet more subtle consideration of many of its predecessors themes.
