Celin et Julie Vont en Bateau

Again, Jaques Rivette - 1974
Still a masterpiece. Adding to what I wrote before, a couple of things. Firstly, it's difficult to tell exactly what the 'purposiveness without a purpose' of the film is. The characters act in a direction, or rather with a direction. The actions are simple; happiness, sadness, trepidation, mockery, and so on. As their is no unifying psychology behind it, we can't really 'understand' it in the usual way. But is it a 'pure' action? No, because we infer motivations, though they are only immanent to that one sequence (or even shot; we had forgotten how long Rivette can go without cutting).
What we were surprised by this time was the depth of critique of this film, how it is a hrash criticism of a certain kind of filmmaking and, with that, living. We have a clear critique of the contemporary 'art crowd', in all their guises, without it straying into naivete. Rivette's own film is able to justify what it argues against, because it has found the talent and bravery to do things differently. Then we have the central critique of the well made film. 'Celine and Julie' is, among thousands of other things, a lesson in how to watch cinema. We learn how to analyse, be estranged from, be able to mock, the everyday 'quality' cinema. Maybe that's why I have hardly ever felt closer to two characters than Celine and Julie. But even our place watching this film isn't free; the head on shots of Celine and Julie, while they watch, has them watching us.
But it's more than watching; then they go and actively change the cinema, make it something different. Destabilise, make it new. I wish it could go on forever.
This film isn't great in a 'transcendent image' way, like 'The Last Laugh', or 'The Lady From Shanghai' just throws shivers down the spine. It is simply about pleasure, and fighting for real pleasure, against what we normally take us such. A kind of pacification, living without desperation, ultimately non-coercive. It is great because it makes that demand against everyday life.