Tuesday | January 16, 2007 7:00 pm

Love on the Ground
(L'Amour par terre)

Screening on Film

Directed by Jacques Rivette.
With Geraldine Chaplin, Jane Birkin, Jean-Pierre Kalfon.
France, 1984, 16mm, color, 127 min.
French with English subtitles.

An eccentric playwright (Kalfon) enlists the services of two international actresses (Chaplin and Birkin) to perform in a production to be staged within the confines of his mansion. Life begins to imitate art as the play’s scripted love triangle is transposed onto the relationship between the three leads. Rivette received criticism upon the release of the film for its similarities to his earlier success, Céline and Julie Go Boating. While it uses many of the same stylistic elements as its predecessor, Love on the Ground continues to raise provocative questions as Rivette explores the thin line between performance and reality.