Immortal duel
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Immortal duel |
| Original title | Duels |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1976 |
| length | 118 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jacques Rivette |
| script | Jacques Rivette, Eduardo de Gregorio , Marilù Parolini |
| production | Stéphane Tchalgadjieff |
| music | Jean Wiener |
| camera | William Lubtchansky |
| cut | Nicole Lubtchansky |
| occupation | |
| |
Immortal Duel (Original title: Duelle ) is a film by Jacques Rivette from the year 1976. Rivette referred to the film as part 2 of his, not fully realized, series Scènes de la vie parallèle (Scenes from parallel life).
action
A fantastic film shot in real Parisian decorations in 1975.
The daughter of the moon, Leni, and the daughter of the sun, Viva, only have forty days for their stay on earth - from the last new moon in winter to the first full moon in spring. Only those who came into possession of a magical stone could remain among mortals, and they no longer long for anything. Both have all kinds of unearthly powers, for example Viva can be in two places at the same time, but there are also limits to both: Leni's powers fail in bright light, Vivas in the dark.
The possession of the magic stone is also a curse for humans. At first it seems to give them excessive confidence, but then their powers fail, as if they were burned out inside. The stone leaves a brand on their skin.
In the forty days of that winter and spring, the following were in possession of the stone: Sylvia Stern - she had taken over the stone from a certain Max Christie and is now friends with Pierrot, Elsa or actually: Jeanne - a ticket girl in a dance, Pierrot - companion by Sylvia Stern, later by Elsa and finally Lucie - Pierrot's sister. Sylvia Stern, Elsa and Pierrot are killed by Leni or Viva when their vital forces are already dwindling. Out of pity, as Leni says.
Only Lucie finds a way on the first night of the full moon in spring to defeat Viva and then, in a park, at the “arbre de Noroît”, Leni.
The loud chirping of birds and the sound of the first metro passing the park herald the return to reality.
Varia
Mythological background
Jacques Rivette: “In order to understand duels , it is necessary to read Claude Gaignebet's Le Carnaval and especially Jean Markale's La Femme celte . The texts are not only exciting, they also explain every setting. "
Quotes
At several points in the dialogue the film quotes from Jean Cocteau's play Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (The Knights of the Round Table). Lucie's final words, after she has already defeated Leni, are those of the magician Merlin : “Deux et deux ne font plus quatre, tous les murs peuvent s'abattre.” (“Two times two is no longer four, all walls fall here. ")
Elsa, who has had the stone for some time and suddenly feels superior to Leni, quotes a sentence from Victor Hugo: "Le rêve est l'aquarium de la nuit." ("The dream is the aquarium of the night.")
The film music
The music of the film by Jean Wiener - mostly solo on the piano, in some scenes in the dancing 'La Rumba' also with a small combo - was without exception recorded directly on the set. Often not only the actors, but also the Viennese themselves are in the picture, so that the viewer always remains aware that they are seeing nothing other than staged fiction.
criticism
"In the precisely balanced staging, the fascinating play of imagination only unfolds when the viewer fully engages in the pull of the film."
DVD
Released in a box with Rivette's film Noroît in the series Les films de ma vie . (Original French version.)
literature
- Hans C. Blumenberg on duels , in: Jan Paaz and Sabine Bubeck (ed.): Jacques Rivette - Labyrinths . Center d'Information Cinématographique de Munich, Revue CICIM 33 of June 1991, pp. 67-80. ISBN 3-920727-04-5 .
Web links
- Immortal duel in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Jonathan Rosenbaum: Duels: Notes on a first viewing from 1976 (English).
- David Ehrenstein: about the film in Senses of Cinema, Issue 43 from May 2007 (English).
- Mary Wiles: Scenes from parallel lives, in The Cine-Files, Issue 12 from spring 2017 (a comparison of duels with Marguerite Duras' film India Song ; English).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rivette in Telerama, September 15, 1976; German translation quoted from the text by Hans C. Blumenberg about duels in: Jan Paaz and Sabine Bubeck (eds.): Jacques Rivette - Labyrinthe . The German translation of the book by Jean Markale: Die keltische Frau , Dianus-Trikont, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-88167-111-0 .
- ^ German translation quoted from: Französisches Theater des XX. Century (Langen-Müller, 1962).
- ↑ Victor Hugo's sentence is from his novel Les Travailleurs de la mer ( The workers of the sea ).
- ↑ Immortal Duel. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 12, 2019 .