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Duelle (une quarantaine) (1976)'s comments
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Siskoid
It would be lying to say I knew what was going on in the first hour of Duelle, even WITH a synopsis. Just elegant women speaking lines in a faux-noir Paris. To me, it felt like director Jacques Rivette was making a Godard film - Noir trappings, stylized poetic dialog, experimental film making - and in your book, that comparison may be a plus. It isn't in mine. Ultimately, it's just that the film takes too long to explain itself, who its characters are, and what motivates them. The second hour is therefore much stronger as we start to understand what's happening. It's a modern fairy tale, with the Daughters of the Sun and Moon, made to taste the human world every year for a number of days, trying to find a jewel that will allow one of them to stay on Earth forever (and reign). Various human beings become their pawns, caught in a web of intrigue as the goddesses quest for the MacGuffin and manipulate them into deadly situations. Visually, Rivette offers interesting lighting, gorgeous fashions (Bulle Ogier and Juliet Berto are astonishingly beautiful in this, with Berto having as many looks as the Moon has phases), and a live score that can be distracting, but forces long takes and necessary silence (there can't be a piano or live band everywhere you go). On repeat viewings, it might grow in my estimation, but after a single one, I respect it more than love it.