Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)

Name: Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Fantasy, Comedy
Released: May 4, 2012
Duration: 193 min
Rating: 100
Cast: Bulle Ogier, Dominique Labourier, Juliet Berto

2012

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 4 Critic Reviews

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100

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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6.7

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6.7	Your Score
6.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

New Yorker Films | Release Date: May 4, 2012 | Unrated

Starring: Bulle Ogier, Dominique Labourier, Juliet Berto

Summary: This magical tale recounts the adventures of Julie, a librarian, and the flamboyant Celine, a magician of sorts - a kind of White Rabbit who leads Julie right through the Looking Glass into a world of her imagination. With the help of some magic, memory-inducing candy, Celine and Julie get plugged into a bizarre drama in a mysterious,This magical tale recounts the adventures of Julie, a librarian, and the flamboyant Celine, a magician of sorts - a kind of White Rabbit who leads Julie right through the Looking Glass into a world of her imagination. With the help of some magic, memory-inducing candy, Celine and Julie get plugged into a bizarre drama in a mysterious, possibly haunted, house. They enter the house in the guise of nurses and encounter two women, who are in love with the same man. The man
is a widower who had promised his wife that he would not remarry as long as their invalid daughter was alive. As the competition in the triangle reaches a murderous level, the high spirited heroines plot a daring rescue of the young victim. (New Yorker Films)… Expand

Director: Jacques Rivette

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Fantasy, Comedy

Rating: Unrated

Runtime: 193 min

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Metascore

100

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

100

Melissa Anderson

May 2, 2012

The playfulness of Rivette's sublime female-buddy picture, recalling the fun of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," would inform Susan Seidelman's "Desperately Seeking Susan" 11 years later. But its greatest descendant is David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," another film about two women erotically attached, a house with a secret, and transformation. Read full review

100

Keith Uhlich

May 2, 2012

By the time they've taken full control of the movie's alternate universe-as the melodrama morphs with marvelous ease into a musical comedy-you feel like anything is possible. Cinema this alive is a rare bird, indeed. Read full review

100

Joseph Jon Lanthier

May 2, 2012

Don't let the women's smirks and wordplay fool you: The fact that art is eternal often makes it more horrifying than life itself. Read full review

100

Ty Burr

Jan 14, 2023

The pace is daringly languid — at times it seems more like a daydream on a sunny park bench than a movie — but you’ll emerge from this wonderland as if from vacation, and you’ll never look at the intersection between life and storytelling in quite the same way. Read full review

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User Reviews

lasttimeisaw

Sep 29, 2013

This Jacques Rivette’s genre-defying opus is an unsung hero upon its release in 1974, but 40 years later when we are all stumped in light of the cornucopia of derivative outputs, this masterpiece attests that it is never too late to burrow into historical archives, advocate some hidden gemsThis Jacques Rivette’s genre-defying opus is an unsung hero upon its release in 1974, but 40 years later when we are all stumped in light of the cornucopia of derivative outputs, this masterpiece attests that it is never too late to burrow into historical archives, advocate some hidden gems and introduce them to the fast food generation, and CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING could overtly widen one’s filmic horizon by its unprecedented storytelling and the contagious jovial aura.

We are like in a blind man’s bluff, the film begins with a head-scratching hide-and-seek tailing between Julie, a librarian and Celine, an amateurish magician, we will never know from the context whether they are acquaintances before or the first-sight attraction draws them closer, after a chirpy episode of putting out feelers, they lives together in a small apartment, where Celine casually mentions of her unpleasant experience working as a nanny for a mystified ménage-à-trois family, it intrigues Julie’s curiosity, from then on, a very unique ghost-house yarn has been ingeniously unveiled through Celine and Julie’s multiple impersonations as the reserved nanny in a boudoir drama.

The film is such a pioneer in its blending liberal modus operandi of whimsicality (the first half looks like everything is done impromptu) with elaborately calculated ad hoc murder scheme, Celine and Julie’s laid-back and bubbly kindred spirit permeates the film and modulates its rhythm and pulse up to a labyrinthine fantasy, utterly absorbing and an influential progenitor to many future rule-breakers (MEMENTO 1999, 10/10 for instance).

It is a diptych in its cinematographic style as well, the insouciant nouvelle vague influence vs. a multi-angle observation indoors, which magnify Berto and Labourier’s disparate temperaments, intensify Ogier and Pisier’s distinctive mystique and functionally wrap us up into this whodunit during the long-haul.

Meanwhile, Rivette adequately leaves viewers many open threads to chew on, like the jumpy intercutting of the shots in the house during Celine’s magic show, is a perplexing maneuver to lure us into the mystery, and it works. Also, one snippet when they let a coin to decide whose turn to visit the mansion, Julie cannily says “head I win, tail you lose”, one should not miss the ephemeral stimulation which plainly gives more credits than its ostensible spontaneity.

At first glance, its 193 minutes running time looks daunting, but as I watched it separately in two days, it turned out pretty well. It is a film can wholly alter one’s notion of story-telling in an anti-cinematic methodology, and Rivette pulls it off effortlessly, a must-see for all thirsty film gourmets plus, it has a sterling ending which will make all its time worth the wait.… Expand

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hamidgoodarzi

Apr 15, 2023

The movie is from 1974 and today, few viewers have the patience to watch a movie for 194 minutes, that's why mini-series and series have gained a lot of fans. The film is remarkable in terms of narrative and original art. The cinematic references in the movie are interesting and the actingThe movie is from 1974 and today, few viewers have the patience to watch a movie for 194 minutes, that's why mini-series and series have gained a lot of fans. The film is remarkable in terms of narrative and original art. The cinematic references in the movie are interesting and the acting of the actors (Celine and Julie) is good. The film is about friendship and how two people become friends in a modern city of Paris. In addition to this friendship, the film pays attention to the concept of modernity, and therefore this friendship in its depth becomes the change of identity of two friends in modern daily life.… Expand

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