The Story of Marie and Julien (2003)
Runtime: 2 hrs 30 mins
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Emmanuelle Beart, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Anne Brochet
DVD Info
Release:
Jul 12, 2005
DVD Features:
- Region (unknown)
- Keep Case
- Widescreen
Additional Release Material:
- Interviews
- Theatrical Trailer
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
For a picture about the fantastic and supernatural, it's a surprisingly flat and unmagical affair.
All the story's power is allowed to leak away by the deliberative heaviness with which Rivette pads through his 150-minute narrative, with its exasperating lack of dramatic emphasis.
An intellectually dazzling but slow-moving, dreary and somewhat pretentious chamberwork.
Far from bad, but academic and -- for once with this director -- overlong.
After a healthy start, pretentiousness lets down a promising premise, and the film just runs out of ticker.
One of Rivette's most straightforward and intriguing works, and one of his most successful narratives.
Insistent minimalism--not everyone's expectations since "The Sixth Sense" but sighting of the Beart body creates an effect of its own.
Although slow-moving and slightly muted in its emotional pay-off, the film is distinguished by a carefully layered performance from the impressive Béart, who subtly conveys Marie's other-worldly detachment and her human vulnerability.
["The Story of Marie and Julien"] is lovely to look at, gorgeously photographed by William Lubchansky.... But, the film never stirred my core.
Rivette, working from a story he developed with Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent, ushers us slyly toward an ending that surprises and provokes, yet offers the possibility of love reborn.
Rivette's glacial film creates a unique world of dulled Parisian blues and grays, exemplified by the fabulous production design and art direction.


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