Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974)

Jacques Rivette’s most playful, innovative frolic, in which his irreverent Parisian heroines dissolve worlds, genres, social codes and boundaries.

Céline, a magician, meets Julie, a librarian, in Montmartre. Together they stumble on a strange, haunted suburban mansion and become entangled in the repeated drama being played out within. Jacques Rivette’s exhilarating and accomplished seventies favourite combines themes of theatricality, paranoia and la vie parisienne with an entrancing examination of the mysteries of movie-making and movie-going.

“No film has brought me more joy than Céline and Julie Go Boating. It’s funny, playful, full of tiny details that you only notice on subsequent viewings. It’s rather like a bedtime story invented on the spot; the teller doesn’t have the faintest clue where it will end up at the beginning, but disparate elements gradually build up and intersect until, finally, the whole thing comes alive.” David Heslin

“The memory is where films spend most of their time, and I always love thinking about Rivette and the actresses and the house – the pinnacle for many traditions and genres of cinema.” Leo Robson

“The most exuberant, haunting expression of female friendship in the history of the cinema.” Mary Wiles

1974 France
Directed by
Jacques Rivette
Produced by
Barbet Schroeder
Written by
Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier, Jacques Rivette
Featuring
Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier
Running time
192 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Céline and Julie Go Boating

Critics

Mubarak Ali
New Zealand
Matthew Asprey Gear
UK
Michael Atkinson
USA
Sam Bodrojan
USA
Bernd Brehmer
Germany
Ty Burr
USA
Phoebe Chen
China/Australia
Anna Coatman
UK
Fernando F. Croce
USA
Jesse Cumming
Canada
Nel Dahl
USA
Kit Duckworth
USA
Lautaro García Candela
Argentina
Mara Guevara
Argentina
Eckhard Haschen
Germany
David Heslin
Australia
Bruce Hodsdon
Australia
Violeta Kovacsics
Spain
Jeff Lambert
USA
Sam McAuliffe
UK
Katherine McLaughlin
UK
Mads K. Mikkelsen
Denmark
Adam Nayman
Canada
Kim Newman
UK
Jonathan Owen
UK/Canada
Leo Robson
UK
Eloise Ross
Australia
Paula Arantzazu Ruiz
Spain
Kat Sachs
USA
Lucía Salas
Argentina/Spain
Eloísa Solaas
Argentina
Miroljub Miki Stojanović
Serbia
David Thomson
UK/USA
Mary Wiles
New Zealand
Geoffrey Wong
Hong Kong

Directors

Sofia Bohdanowicz
Canada
Bertrand Mandico
France
Matías Piñeiro
Argentina
Sophy Romvari
Canada
Rudolf Thome
Germany

Articles related to Céline and Julie Go Boating

Load more

Subscribe to BFI Player to access more films like this

Start with a 14-day free trial then only £6.99 a month - cancel any time.

Explore subscription on BFI Player