Rivette and his players know that exploring the unanswerable is where the fun and riches lie. Anyone who treasures precisely tuned direction and meaningful dialogue will agree.
Va Savoir (2001)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:76
Fresh:65
Rotten:11
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Constructed with grace and wit, Va Savoir is a light-hearted yet cerebral romantic comedy of intertwining relations.
Runtime: 2 hrs 34 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: Camille, a young French actress, has precipitously left Paris for Italy three years ago. The reasons for her departure, or rather her flight, remain mysterious. She has found love and success in... Camille, a young French actress, has precipitously left Paris for Italy three years ago. The reasons for her departure, or rather her flight, remain mysterious. She has found love and success in Torino. Ugo, a famous director who heads a theatre company, has given her her chance. She has become the leading lady in the company and his lover. This is the first time she returns to Paris to act in a series of performances "As You Desire Me" by Luigi Pirandello. Camille will be confronted with the past she has fled. She secretly dreads meeting Pierre, the man she left. But she will meet him again. Ugo also has a secret. Being in Paris is for him an opportunity to search for a lost, unpublished, manuscript of Goldoni. This quest will lead him to the troubling Dominique. Passions will rise. Each will be confronted with the truth. The theatre, once again, will serve as a backdrop and a revelation to the truth. -- © 2001 Sony Pictures Classics [More]
Starring: Jeanne Balibar, Sergio Castellitto, Marianne Basler, Claude Berri
Starring: Jeanne Balibar, Sergio Castellitto, Marianne Basler, Claude Berri, Jacques Bonnaffe, Hélène de Fougerolles, Catherine Rouvel, Bruno Todeschini
Director: Jacques Rivette
Director: Jacques Rivette
Screenwriter: Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent, Jacques Rivette
Producer: Martine Marignac
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Reviews for Va Savoir
It's an engaging diversion from a master director who, at the ripe age of 78, appears to be once again at the top of his game.
It lacks the scariness, the mystery, and even much of the curiosity of Rivette's better work.
Jacques Rivette's playful romance takes time to find its feet, yet its leisurely charm and generous compassion towards its characters proves a winning combination.
The result is like a formation dance performed at the speed of a chess game.
In its artistic quality, subtle complexity, and thematic concerns Rivette's film recalls Renoir's Rules of the Game and particularly Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night, which also deals with a theatrical troupe and the notion of life versus art
If true love is a state in which each sees the other as he or she would most want to be seen (and maybe it isn't), then Va savoir (Who Knows) is the definition of true love.
Leave it to the French to release a film that refuses to pander to the lowest common denominator.
It's slight, contrived and conceited. But, oh, for more films as flawed as this one.
It’s possible to walk away with either a warm glow or thinking, so what? To which I’d reply by quoting the translation of the title: who knows?
For my money, this is a pretentious, overlong (150 minutes), boring film about people for whom living seems to be a chore, and human connection impossible.
There are a number of fantastic scenes in Va Savoir, but the realities of its characters and their portrayals -- some no doubt a function of a different culture, others undercooked in any language -- undermine its effectiveness.
This might sound terribly convoluted, but on screen it plays out simply and humorously.
Rivette deftly entertains while intellectually posing conundrums and revealing the complexity of human desires.
For those people, like me, who do not become engaged by the rambling and plodding story that screenwriters Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent created, the film is sleep-inducing.
A generally wonderful experience, though it should come with a warning posted outside the theatre: Not for the impatient.
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