(Ne touchez pas la hache, or Don’t Touch the Ax) “The Duchess of Langeais,” made in 2007, is the twentieth or so feature by literature- and serendipity-loving Jacques Rivette. Eighty and still standing, he’s one of a quartet of surviving Nouvelle Vague-ers: while Rohmer has said he’s done at the age of 88, and the still-active Godard (77) and Resnais (86 last week). North America saw rare showings of Rivette’s 1971 “Out One,” which, even though made in 1971 and running about twelve-and-a-half hours, is about as modern a movie gets. My heart usually falls when I hear that a European or Asian director I admire is making a period piece. I want to see modern life, the modern world through their eyes. Yet there are films that feel like they’re in the present moment even with the trappings of costume drama. I wouldn’t make a direct comparison, but I’d say that the feeling of “now” in Rivette’s film is parallel to what I liked about Assayas’ “Les destinees” or Catherine Breillat’s upcoming “The Last Mistress,” where the filmmaking has a grammar, tactility and an unbridled character that feels present tense. Rivette is deep into the paranoia drawn from his beloved Balzac once more, repeating some of the lore of “The Thirteen,” the shadowy, society-controlling cadre that figures into “Out One” as well. But, as Breillat reminded me in a recent conversation about her film, “All films are period pieces.” Minimal yet provocative, Rivette’s setting of Balzac’s Napoleon-era story of romantic excesses fits neatly into his body of work, with bone-dry wit throughout. Love can so readily turn to cruelty: Rivette again charts the violent transgressions of desire in beautiful measure. With Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, Bull Ogier, Michel Piccoli and Barbet Schroeder. Rivettte’s customary cinematographer William Lubtchansky was behind the camera. 137m. (Ray Pride)
Related Stories
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Heart of Darkness: A Review of The Batman The three-hour film noir unfolds briskly, an intensive study in the pervasive interplay of power, money and corruption in what seems like perpetual rainy night.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
