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Céline et Julie vont en bateau: Phantom Ladies Over Paris (1974)

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Information

A.k.a.: Celine and Julie Go Boating
Year: 1974
Runtime: 193 min.
Director: Jacques Rivette
Genres: Drama, Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery
Rating *: 7.5
Votes *: 3,949
Checks: 1,697
Favs: 217
Dislikes: 36
Favs/checks: 12.8% (1:8)
Favs/dislikes: 6:1

* View IMDb information

Top comments

Mr. Funktastic
Céline et Julie vont en bateau goes absolutely nowhere and takes 3 hours to get there. 10 years 8 months ago
ignatzkat
Playful, surreal, and very, very funny. Makes a great comedy/tragedy pair with "Mulholland Drive." 14 years 1 month ago
Siskoid
If any movie has a claim to approaching the style of French Nouveau Roman, it's Jacques Rivette's Céline et Julie vont en bateau, a loopy rule-breaking quantum comedy in which the two heroines don't do much boating at all. Knowing a couple of expressions using the French word for boat, "bateau", may be in order. For starters, "monter un bateau" (to build a boat) means concocting a tall tale, which this movie definitely is (Céline is a pathological liar), while "aller en bateau" (taking a boat ride) means getting caught up in a story you're being told, which is how the two women get involved in a hoary melodrama/haunting thanks to Proustian editing and hallucinogenic candy. And then there's the one about being in the same boat (an expression that translates one-for-one in French), which justifies the motif of interchangeability that permeates the film. Though Céline and Julie are completely different characters, they are able to take each other's places in the haunted house's play (13 knocks, everyone!), but also in each other's lives (where Dominique Labourier has a career moment). Alchemical word play is also part of the game, as are the strange commonalities between the two women and the characters of the house. At more than 3 hours, in large part because scenes repeat with only slight additions several times, I thought I would get bored or frustrated with Rivette faffing about with movie logic, but no, it all definitely pays off in a wonderfully strange way. 2 years 6 months ago

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In 11 official lists

This movie ranks #36 in Time Out's The 100 Best French Films

Time Out's The 100 Best …
36
This movie ranks #72 in The Times's 100 Best French Films

The Times's 100 Best Fre…
72
This movie ranks #76 in iCheckMovies's 1970s Top 100

iCheckMovies's 1970s Top…
76
This movie ranks #97 in Sight & Sound's The Greatest Films of All Time

Sight & Sound's The Grea…
97
This movie ranks #142 in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films

TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest F…
142
This movie ranks #158 in Time Out's 1000 Films to Change Your Life

Time Out's 1000 Films to…
158
This movie ranks #164 in The Guardian's 1000 Films to See Before You Die

The Guardian's 1000 Film…
164
This movie ranks #580 in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

1001 Movies You Must See…
580
This movie ranks #653 in Jonathan Rosenbaum's Essential Cinema

Jonathan Rosenbaum's Ess…
653
This movie ranks #772 in David Thomson's Have You Seen?

David Thomson's Have You…
772
This movie ranks #1301 in The Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection
1301