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| Va Savoir |
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  (6/10)
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Runtime: 154 |
| Public Rating: 9.00 (2 votes) |
Director: Jacques Rivette |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy/Romance |
Year: 2001 |
| Writer(s): Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent, Jacques Rivette |
| Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov |
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Jacques Rivette - the man hasn't gotten enough distribution over the years. Such alleged landmarks of cinemas as his 13-hour Out 1 will go unseen by most cineastes because theirsheer daunting length scares off distributors. Nevertheless,he's revered in France as one of the most important French NewWave-ers. So his relatively brief 150 minute romantic comedyVa Savoir (wisely, Sony ditched the clunky translation title, Who Knows?) has gotten distribution perhaps more for its length and accessibility than any inherent quality. That aside, it's a perfectly acceptable, not half-bad romantic comedy that definitely provides a warm, if short, glow by its end.
The plot is a typical stage-versus-reality gimmick: actress Cammile (Jeanne Balibar, perfectly bitchy as the self-dramatizing star) gets involved in romantic complications, having returned to Paris for the first time in three years. Her on-stage machinations (in Pirandello, to be precise) occasionally mirror the off-stage action, though the uninformed viewer (such as myself) is more likely to be confused by this than anything else. The ensemble cast works nicely together, and there's not a bad performance in the lot.
Rivette has slowed the romantic comedy down immensely, and he rarely does anything with the camera other than pan or simply place it in a good location and let it roll. His rigorous style works nicely for the film's deliberate, self-conscious slow pacing. Indeed, why make a romantic comedy at all nowadays unless you have something new to do to it? Though the effect is at first merely sluggish, it begins to reap rewards after the first hour has passed. That said, many familiar with Rivette's work (unlike me) have been disappointed by the relative safeness of this film - there's nothing radical or startling about it. Though I agree with Jonathan Rosenbaum that I have no desire to see the film again, it's a perfectly acceptable, unusually long trifle. Do I sound defensive? Maybe it's not that great after all, but I enjoyed it.
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