Va Savoir

This is one of Rivette's last films; it continues his exploration of mystery and secrets held by the main characters. I found Ugo's obsessive search for the missing Goldoni manuscript to be compelling and well worked out. The broken love affair between Pierre and Camille is also well drawn--he seems more threatening than he really is, as we find out in the course of the story. As ever with Rivette, there's a play being put on, and the actors must show us all the joys and sorrows of the profession. At one point Ugo despairs of making any money out of the tour; I suppose he isn't getting any government grants. I give this 5/5, it holds my attention throughout.

Va Savoir is one of my favorite international films. The humor alone always gets me. It's not a comedy nor a "dramedy." It's just about human relationships. Sure, all movies are about human relationships. However, this movie's narrative is compelling and the chemistry between the actors makes it humorous. Everything takes place around or behind a play. The main characters are actors in a traveling theatre troupe. The director and leading lady are stereotypically in love. However, it seems that their love is more an enduring friendship than a physical affair. All of the main characters are searching for something. If it is not a long lost play by an Italian playwright it's long lost dreams...

Emmanuelle Beart is in this movie and she is very beautiful. So much for the high point of this movie. This is a musical as performed by your local High School plus one pretty lady. The "Mystery" is obvious and, thus, not much of a mystery. This is a French film in French with English subtitles. If you want to practice listening and understanding spoken and sung French then watch this movie. For all others this movie is a waste of time. Catherine Deneuve was for this movie and still is - fat. It happens to us all.

I liked it as the 4th movie to use the song Sensa Fine at the very end. It made the film for me.

Boring beyond description. I confess I didn't finish it. Life's to short to waste a whole three hours on a pointless, self-indulgent film full of archly unconvincing characters, like this turkey.About 90 mins in, I realised that although my eyes were still facing the screen, the rest of me was far, far away. So nothing for it but to switch off and toss the DVD into the "for the Oxfam Shop" bag I keep in the front hallway.

This French romantic comedy kept my interest mostly due to the twists of the various relationships and the overall fine performances by the cast. The plot/story was hard for me to follow until 30-40 minutes into the movie due to 2 factors: (1) the frequent changes between the scenes of the touring play and the off-stage lives of the main characters with the other members of the cast and (2) the very slow pace of the first part of the story. I found Jeanne Balibar's & Sergio Castellito's performances to be excellent, and that helped me to accept more easily the ambiguity of the story line. I liked the film so much that when I finished watching it once, I watched the first 30-40 minutes of it again so I could enjoy that part of the film more than I did on my first viewing. While that worked for me, I consider it to be a shortcoming of the film in general. I also think that I would have enjoyed the film more if it had been carefully edited to be about 30 minutes shorter.

This French ensemble romantic comedy revolves around six people who lie, cheat and steal their way around Paris over the course of several increasingly zany days, culminating in a duel. The fact that it takes place in the present day should give you an idea of how kooky the characters become! All six of them (three men and three women) are connected to one another somehow, and over the course of putting on a play they manage to get into more nutty situations than you can shake a baguette at. It's quite funny and a very light foray into the cheerful world of romance and Paris. Worth watching if you can find a copy.

This film runs 154 minutes which is about the length of most epics. This however is not an epic and though an excellent story(once it gets going)it will tire and try the patience of even the most devoted Rivette loyalists. I like this film and am glad to have stayed the course with it but Rivette could have given us filmgoers a little more to look at(most shots are interiors of hotels or apartments) for those 2 1/2 hours. That said this film in every other way succeeds and on a very high level.The story: In true new wave fashion the movie has no real starting point. The characters are at first met at some distance as we see them in their professional roles as actors. Slowly we see them in more relaxed settings and slowly we get to know them. The key word is slowly because for all the attention that must be paid the true payoffs don't start coming til approximately half way through the movie. It takes Rivette awhile (perhaps too long) to set up all the various situations/relationships but once set up the movies pace picks up. The lead actress plays a leading actress and how you feel about this movie will largely be determined by how you feel about her because everything pivots around her. The actress is not particualarly attractive and it takes awhile to begin to find her fascinating but she is that. In love with her director and in love with her ex her main emotion is indeciciveness. Not passion nor desire or anything excting just uncertainty. Interestingly however the other characters are equally indecisive. They are all indecisive in a different way and that makes this film farcical even though you rarely find yourself laughing at this human comedy. What is most memorable about the picture is how well eacg character is brought to us. Rivette is great with detail and nuance and you have to be with a picture like this. Every character has some aspect which will capture your interest and though the plot does not take you anywhere there is an arrival at the end. An arrival at a kind of understanding that allows for peoples complexities to coexist and that makes this film experience a very civilized one. Rivette makes insightful use of the theatre in Va Savoir. The theatre is the place we ask the big questions about love and identity but life is not written out for us ahead of time so life is the even more uncertain cinema-theatre we actors all occupy. Rivette finds both art and life are richest when in most intimate contact with one another. In the end you will feel enlivened by that spirit of understanding and glad to have given your time to this epic length look at intimacy.

This is the first film by Jacques Rivette I've seen, and I'll definitely be watching out for more of his films if they're all up to this standard. Camille arrives in Paris with her Italian partner, theatre director Ugo. It's been three years since she was last in Paris and she feels the urge to go and look up an old fling. From that moment on, we witness a film of twists and turns, moving from real poignancy to wonderful comedy. It follows many familiar themes in French cinema - theatre, dance, music, literature, philosophy, but mainly the search for love.It has a quite consistent pace, being quite methodical in building up to the finale, but what a finish! It has the funniest ending to a film I've seen in a long time, with the 'duel' between Ugo (Sergio Castellito) and Pierre (Jacques Bonnaffe) being hilarious.While quite different in scope, I would recommend this to anyone who has taken their first step into French cinema with Amelie. This is an accessible but intelligent film, and should appeal to anyone with a sense of romance.

A very good film

Excellent item, timely shipment. Thanks.

film carino ....molto interessante ... da vedere ... contenuti che toccano le tematiche della vita attuale e anche modernagraziesaluti

parce que il y a caterine rouvel dans ce film bien que ce ne soit marqué nulle part dommage qu'il ne soit pas en français en entier et que la lerture ne facilte pas les choses merci