Undoubtedly Jacques Rivette’s most critically acclaimed film, Céline et Julie vont en bateau featured in the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes when it was released in 1974 and went on to win the Jury Prize at Locarno the same year. Starring Juliet Berto (La Chinoise, Week End) and Dominique Labourier in the title roles, the cast also includes Films du Losange co-founder Barbet Schroeder playing one of the ‘ghosts’ that the girls meet at 7 bis, rue du Nadir-aux-Pommes, where the story shifts into a separate but co-existing time and reality. 

Exploring a playful female relationship not unlike that of the two Maries in Czech director Věra Chytilová’s Daisies (1966), Céline et Julie capitalises on the potential of film as imaginative experiment, drawing inspiration from sources ranging from Jean Cocteau to Marcel Proust. (Notes by Alice Butler.)

This film is screening as part of Les Films du Losange: 50th Anniversary Programme (October 7th – 20th). 

Les Films du Losange 50th Anniversary programme continues in November with Part Two, concerning the work of Éric Rohmer, and Part Three as a strand of 2012 IFI French Film Festival.