Around a Small Mountain | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Jacques Rivette |
Written by |
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Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Irina Lubtchansky |
Edited by | Nicole Lubtchansky |
Music by | Pierre Allio |
Production company | Pierre Grise Productions |
Release dates |
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Running time | 84 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | French |
Around a Small Mountain (French : 36 vues du pic Saint-Loup) is a 2009 French drama film directed by Jacques Rivette, which was his final film before his death on 29 January 2016, and starred Jane Birkin and Sergio Castellitto. It was screened in the main competition at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. [1]
Kate (Jane Birkin) is driving along a winding mountain road when her car stalls. Vittorio (Sergio Castellitto) happens along, stops, and fixes her car without ever speaking to her. After he drives away, he slows down and decides to turn back. Something about the woman has interested him.
Later in town, Vittorio learns that Kate has returned to join her family's traveling circus after leaving under mysterious conditions fifteen years ago. Kate's lover was killed during a performance. Intrigued by Kate's story, Vittorio stays for the show, and then decides to stay in town for a while, booking the room above a local cafe. He begins to attend all the shows, fascinated by the circus and the lives of its performers—all the while trying to discover the secret that led to Kate's sudden departure.
When the circus caravan leaves town, Vittorio follows. With nowhere to go and nothing else to do, both he and Kate seem to be running away with the circus. Gradually he learns about the buried past of the circus and the buried careers of its performers.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 19 reviews, and an average rating of 6.3/10. [2] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [3]
In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, writing:
Sometimes a film is simply a story we might have found interesting to live. Its message may be no more than that we all have to weather hard times. To ordinary life may be added some style and artifice, allowing the filmmaker to tweak reality into a more pleasing form. Maybe that's what Jacques Rivette has in mind with Around a Small Mountain. [4]
Jane Mallory Birkin was a British and French actress and singer. She had a decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career as an actress, mostly in French cinema.
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Jacques Rivette was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He made twenty-nine films, including L'Amour fou (1969), Out 1 (1971), Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), and La Belle Noiseuse (1991). His work is noted for its improvisation, loose narratives, and lengthy running times.
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Jacques Rivette was a French film director, screenwriter and film critic. He wrote and directed twenty feature films, including the two-part Joan the Maiden, eight short films and a three-part television documentary. He also acted in small roles and participated in documentaries. After making his first short film, Aux quatre coins, in his hometown of Rouen, Rivette moved to Paris in 1949 to pursue a career in filmmaking. While attending film screenings at Henri Langlois' Cinémathèque Française and other ciné-clubs he gradually befriended many future members of the French New Wave, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol. Rivette's association with this group of young cinephiles led to the start of both his filmmaking career and his work in film criticism. In collaboration with his new friends, Rivette made two more short films and worked as a cinematographer and editor on films by Rohmer and Truffaut. He also worked in small roles and as an assistant director to Jean Renoir on French Cancan and Jacques Becker on Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. During this period he began writing film criticism for the magazine Gazette du Cinéma and later Cahiers du Cinéma, and was one of the most respected writers by his peers.
Joan the Maid is a 1994 French historical film directed by Jacques Rivette. Chronicling the life of Joan of Arc from the French perspective, it was released in two parts: Joan the Maid, Part 1: The Battles and Joan the Maid, Part 2: The Prisons.
Slogan is a 1969 French satirical romantic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Pierre Grimblat. It stars Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin in their first film together. The film marked the beginning of the 13-year relationship between Gainsbourg and Birkin.
Catherine & Co. is a 1975 sex comedy film directed by Michel Boisrond from a screenplay by Catherine Breillat and Léo L. Fuchs, based on the 1967 novel Catherine and Co. by Edouard de Segonzac. The film stars Jane Birkin, Patrick Dewaere, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Vittorio Caprioli and Jean-Claude Brialy.
Jacques Rivette was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He made twenty-nine films, including L'amour fou (1969), Out 1 (1971), Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), and La Belle Noiseuse (1991). His work is noted for its improvisation, loose narratives, and lengthy running times.