“We didn’t have a message. We wanted to create a performance film, a magical film.” Julliet Berto on Celine and Julie go boating
"I had sent my heroine straight down a rabbit-hole ... without the least idea what was to happen afterwards" - Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) on the creation of Alice's adventures in Wonderland
CONTEXT
Made in 1974 by French New wave director Jacques Rivette and filmed over a summer in paris, Celine and Julie go boating is a bizarre looping dream of a film about 2 interconnected Parisian women who share each others lives and stumble upon a mystery in a house which involves memory, a troubled young girl and magic sweets.
For the basis of this film Jaques Rivette performed a “controlled improvisation” with the actors, mainly the two leads, Juliet Berto and Dominique Labourier. In particular Juliet Berto remembers that during filming “we started off with the notion of amusing ourselves by creating interchangeable characters”. (Berto, Celine and Julie... BFI booklet) This freewheeling nature also extended to the narrative itself. For example the key story point of the magic sweets that transport Celine and Julie in and out of the world in the mysterious house was thought of by Rivette quite late: “it allowed us to link all the elements together to provide… a mechanism for holding the film together” (Rivette, Celine and Julie.. BFI booklet)
Other examples of spontaneous ideas are identified by essayist Beatrice Loayza. For example of the chase sequence towards the beginning of the film, where Celine runs after Julie in the streets of Paris: “Rivette’s handheld 16 mm camera captures Berto and Labourier’s antics and comes across as free and spontaneous” (Loayza, 2021, State of Play)
Due to the sheer weight of ideas and lines used from the actors in the film, from small ideas to last night’s dreams. Of the process, Labourier who played Julie, reminisced: “We got up early in the morning and told each other our dreams, which the film depended on” (Labourier, 2021, state...) . As such, the script for Celine and Jullie is split in attribution several ways. “scénario” credits are given to “Berto / Labourier / Ogier / Pisier / Rivette” (Kristen Yoonsoo Kim, 2021, Thick as Thieves) Nearly all of the main actors are credited with the story.
The other major influence on the film was literature, particularly the Victorian melodramas of Henry James, and also the whimsy and nonsense of Lewis Carroll. Carroll’s influence is a strong one and shines through clearly, even down to the impromptu story ideas, and the dream logic tone the film takes, Celine and Julie’s curiosity “It doesn’t matter who understands Céline and Julie so long as they understand each other.” (Kristen Yoonsoo Kim, 2021, Thick...) this is also prominently seen in film’s detours into other worlds.
Note:
We have covered the French New Wave era of cinema previously in Down the Rabbit Hole project essays with Zazie dans le metro, Black Moon and Alice or the Last Escapade respectively.
REFERENCES:
Essays:
Kim, Kristen Yoonsoo. “The Triumph of 'Céline and Julie Go Boating'.” The Nation, April 6, 2021. https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/celine-julie-boating-review/
Loayza, Beatrice. “Céline and Julie Go Boating: State of Play.” The Criterion Collection. Accessed July 13, 2021. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7316-c-line-and-julie-go-boating-state-of-play.
Booklets:
BFI. Celine and Julie Go Boating. London: BFI, 2004. Essay booklet from the UK BFI DVD
