A singular talent, Rivette reminds me in some ways of Robert Altman, both directors greatly respecting as well as admiring their actors, generously regarding them as collaborators and co-creators, indulging these peers in improvisation and personal interpretation. Rivette was more broadly experimental, even avant-garde (indeed, with the possible exception of Godard, Rivette seems the most avant-garde of the 'Cahiers' turned directors), but both filmmakers were highly invested in process as much as product. There was still a hopeful future for Rivette when this clip was shot, with no anticipation then of the long, sad decline of the great director's cognition, and eventual death in 2016. The man is gone, but his art thankfully lives on.
A singular talent, Rivette reminds me in some ways of Robert Altman, both directors greatly respecting as well as admiring their actors, generously regarding them as collaborators and co-creators, indulging these peers in improvisation and personal interpretation. Rivette was more broadly experimental, even avant-garde (indeed, with the possible exception of Godard, Rivette seems the most avant-garde of the 'Cahiers' turned directors), but both filmmakers were highly invested in process as much as product.
There was still a hopeful future for Rivette when this clip was shot, with no anticipation then of the long, sad decline of the great director's cognition, and eventual death in 2016. The man is gone, but his art thankfully lives on.