Waseda Shochiku is a cinema in central Tokyo that puts on double features of classic and independent movies. It’s affordable (1300 yen), has a spartan set-up (ticket desk, drink machine, and some goods), and an expectant atmosphere. You can’t book tickets online. You are back in the welcome past. One of few places to put on (not one, but two) Jacques Rivette double features.
I’m no film buff but I’ve fallen in love with film later in life. And Rivette keeps being mentioned by people I respect. And suddenly, there we are - four movies directed by him - two each on consecutive days: 1995’s Up, Down, Fragile coupled with 1989’s The Gang of Four; and 1998’s Secret Defence with 1984’s Love on the Ground. Armed with some knowledge I dove in. They were in French with Japanese subtitles.
I knew there would be places where I would be lost. But everyone gets lost in Rivette plots. I wasn’t bothered. I followed the storylines well (and the script) and I feel I ‘got’ Jacques Rivette. I’ll be back for more screenings (if they appear), but what prevents him reaching a wider audience is the running times of his films. Talk about expansive. All four approached the three-hour mark. His are films we should experience in our student days. It is clear that many movie masters did. It is also clear that Rivette learned from Hitchcock and his French New Wave contemporaries.
Plenty of movie makers did, but his influence on modern film would appear to be considerable: there must (I haven’t checked) be many academic articles about intertextuality and Rivette. Yet if you don’t commit yourself to his films, they can look visually alluring but ordinary. Close attention is paramount. Then we can notice subtleties. He knows why the classics were classics. He remembers why we should leave a chair missing. He creates spaces for engaging side narratives to grow and add to the main one. He makes sure the everyday merges with ‘staged’ worlds. And pulls it all together.
Movie 1: Haut Bas Fragile (Up, Down, Fragile).
At almost 3 hours, Up, Down, Fragile is set in mid-90s Paris with three youthful heroines. A homage, of sorts, to Hollywood musicals with songs that unexpectedly appear involving the three main characters: Ida, starting a job as a university librarian, Louise, regaining her health, and Nino, a petty criminal who becomes a courier. Nathalie Richard (as Nino) is particularly engaging and her dances entrance us, but over the course of the movie the three characters cross paths. We see how they deal with turning points, and when the songs arrive, they surprise.
Movie 2: Les Bande Des Quatre (The Gang of Four).
The Gang of Four was made a few years earlier (1989) and follows the lives of four (not three) women. They are again in Paris. Anna, Claude, Joyce, and Cécile live together and take acting classes at a disused theatre. They are monied, but it is unclear how. Their bullying teacher, former actress Constance, has rigid methods which command respect but not passion. Cécile (Nathalie Richard again) moves out to live with her boyfriend and Lucia takes her place. Cécile continues to attend acting classes where they practice scenes, but we discover they don’t actually perform plays. Apart from there being four women, is there an additional meaning for the title? Is it connected to Rivette’s past? Are we in a dream? Who is the well-dressed gentleman who keeps appearing and disappearing? Nothing is certain and one suspects a conspiracy is afoot. A performance is missing but perhaps ‘the’ performance is lifelong.
Movie 3: Secret Défense.
Another movie that is almost three hours long where Rivette uses conspiracy, multiple narratives, and experimentation. It seems to be a murder mystery, at the beginning, when we see biologist Sylvie (Sandrine Bonnaire) talking to her brother (Jerzy Radziwi?owicz) – who tells her that their father was murdered by a colleague. I thought we would be dealing with anthrax and viruses, but instead we are swept into a sea of intrigue, conspiracy, and secrets in a human drama. (I later learned that Rivette was inspired by Jean Giraudoux’s interpretation of the Electra myth.) One wonders whether some questions should remain unanswered.
Movie 4: L’Amour Par Terre (Love on the Ground).
A beautifully shot movie that I arrived late for. No worries. It’s available for all (as I write). In an article for Reverse Shot, Jeff Reichart reviewed Love on the Ground together with The Gang of Four. Both help us tease out themes for the uninitiated. I was one, and that article would have been useful, but I’m pleased to have jumped in without much knowledge about him. Love on the Ground continues his use of strong female characters who are caught up in a mesh of life imitating art and art imitating life. Unfortunately, having missed the first part, I lost my thread, but I quickly discerned that Jane Birkin and Geraldine Chaplin were in a love triangle with a mysterious (magician) character.
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Up, Down, Fragile was the most immediately entertaining, closely followed by The Gang of Four. All are worthwhile. Watching with English subtitles is obviously best, and I think some may well be available online.
Rivette is definitely worth looking into, but only if you have the time. Check the running time first– one of his movies, ‘Out 1’, is 13 hours long! 
