From those fine purveyors of world cinema Arrow Academy comes the Jacques Rivette Collection, which brings together some of the director’s hardest to see works, each given a 2k restoration, newly translated and debuting on home video (Blu-ray and DVD) for the first time in UK.
Out 1 is one of the crowning achievements of Rivette’s remarkable career. Conceived as a television mini-series, this 13-hour monolith consists of eight feature-length episodes revolving around two theatre companies, blackmail and conspiracy. Originally screened just the once in its full-length version in 1971, Out 1 was then re-conceived by Rivette as a four-and-a-half-hour feature and re-named Out 1: Spectre to acknowledge its shadow-like nature.
Complementing Out 1 are two ‘parallel films’, Duelle (une quarantaine) and Noroît (une vengeance). The former sees Rivette head into fantasy territory: the Queen of the Sun (Bulle Ogier) and the Queen of the Night (Juliet Berto) search for a magical diamond in present-day Paris. The latter is a loose adaptation of The Revenger’s Tragedy and a pirate tale, starring Geraldine Chaplin. Also included is Merry-Go-Round, in which Joe Dallesandro and Maria Schneider are summoned to Paris, kick-starting the most surreal of all Rivette’s mysteries.
Arrow Academy’s limited edition Blu-ray/DVD box-set (only 3000 copies) includes the following bonus features…
• The Mysteries of Paris: Jacques Rivette’s Out 1 Revisited – a brand-new feature length documentary.
• Scenes from a Parallel Life: Jacques Rivette Remembers – archive interview with the director.
• Interview with critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
