I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Perfectly adorable

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

One of my favorite films. Laugh out loud funny---and disturbing at the same time. That is a hard combination to pull off. The secret are the two lead actors who play the title roles. They are so funny and so talented and they play off each other so well that if this was a slice of life film where nothing much happens it would still be worth watching. But this is not slice of life. This is a carefully constructed mystery which questions the nature of reality and personality and memory. And it stands the test of time. I first saw it in the mid 1970s. I watched it again last night. It was great both times and every time in between.I am surprised that there are so few reviews for this movie considering the fact that so many directors have copied it. Case in point, Mulholland Drive which has over a 1000 reviews. How can an "homage to" movie get so many more reviews than the source material? Especially when the source material is so good!

It's quite an amazing experience, and I mean that in good and potentially Bad-WTF-Is-This-Anything ways. In a way it reminded me of the sci-fi short film Heaven is Now, if it were more like Inception. And in French. And it didn't have really much music at all. Matter of fact what makes the film so unique and strange and both highly entertaining/engaging and off-putting sometimes in the same scene is that it's less about is story than it is more like a documentary Rivette shot on how much these two women (Juliet Berto as Celine and Dominique Labourier as Julie) love laughing and giggling at the silly scenarios and dialog they've come up with (they were also co-writers). It's as much about watching them, how much chemistry they have together as friends and bosom buddies (so to speak) as it is about watching what they watch in their 'visions'.In short, it's about... still not totally sure exactly. The 'plot' that's to speak of (and really, who should care about that anyway, but I digress) is that these two women, Julie and Celine, meet by chance after one drops sunglasses or something and the other one follows the other to return them - all across the city. And then they strike up a friendship, based around... I suppose that they're both amiable young women who have a fancy for magic. That is, one of them is officially a magician, the other is a librarian (I think). And then... one of the women, Celine I think, goes into some strange house. Why she does go there I don't remember - perhaps thinking back now is like a dream unto itself - but when she emerges it's like she's totally drunk, stumbling around, and has a hard candy with her. When she eats it, she can see what goes on at the house, which is basically like a macabre daytime soap opera ghost-directed (so to speak) by Alfred Hitchcock.So it goes, the two women get drawn more and more into this realm of the 'house' and these people, particularly a little girl who seems subjected to the cruel, Bunuelian streaks of these rich people who roam around in a trance (maybe they have done a better job already than Tim Burton could've ever done with his Gothic 'Dark Shadows'?) and it turns kinda like into a drug movie. Or a hallucination movie. And all the while Berto and Labourier, both attractive in their own way if not gorgeous, more like naturally pretty (for Julie, and she was sweat-stains under her arm-pits, how rare/cool is that to see in a movie?), and both actresses are having a ball in this movie. That's the key for me I think; for the length that it's at, and it's pretty goddamn long, and for how obtuse things can seem (i.e. that scene at the sink where the woman's hand is bleeding and the nurse - interchangeable from shot to shot of the two leading ladies, a gag that gets funnier and weirder the longer the movie goes on), there's always a sense of play.In fact, Celine and Julie Go Boating is one of THE movies about how to 'play' in cinematic terms, and not only that but watching other people play. It turns into an Inception deal where we're the audience to the audience that is the macabre nightmare that is a home life (and with Barbet Schroeder as the husband!) There are some stretches in the film, like when Julie is by herself in the apartment looking over a picture of her ex-boyfriend, that just goes on too long, and grows into tedium. But there's no other film like it, and when Rivette and his ladies hit their stride it brought me into its arms that would sometimes combust and dance and giggle, especially in the last 40 minutes or so when Celine and Julie go together (not separate) into the house. Maybe the girls should count themselves lucky: it could've been the house out of Hausu.

The first thing i could say about this film is: it is certainly not for every taste. First of all its plot is totally non-liner, second this movie deals with strange themes in a very strange way, third it has the typical for the french cinema slow development of the act and fourth - it is over three hours long. It is a film about magic and friendship, about two women and their fascination with each other and with magical tricks. It is also a Jacques Rivette movie and I think any one who has watched some of his other films will notice it - it is an extremely long enigmatic movie with interesting dialogues shot in a beautiful way. It somehow reminds of L'Amour Par Terre but is not so dark. This movie can be considered as a comedy, a drama, a thriller or a mystery but first of all it is an experimental film with notes of surrealism and at least for me one of the biggest masterpieces of the french new wave.

The traditional story of 2 women attempting to save a little girl from the craziness of growing up is turned on its head in this unique tale. The first 2 hours of the film are tiresome and you wish that it would have ended before it started but by the end of the film (over 3 hours in length) you are glad that the story has an outcome and are so engrossed into the story then you even hope the little fish in the apartment has a good ending. I suggest that the movie is an attempt for us to see the world of Céline and Julie as Céline and Julie saw the scenes in the house, from a disjointed perspective of bits and pieces strewn together by little green candies(this is not a drug film rather the candies are like memory pills that would help an elderly person remember things that his old age had suppressed). If you are looking for a movie about boating go somewhere else but remember that the boating scene reflects heavily on the transformation of their universe as it looks into the future. Is it all a game and does it repeat at the end? I do not have the answers but I suggest that you watch and find out for yourself.The acting is okay (not the best but it feels real and not scripted), there are Alice and Wonderland references in many places including most of the first 4 minutes, the camera angels are cool at times and make you sea sick at others, the sound effects (expecially from the cars/transportation) are louder than my ears would like but not too loud as to cause hearing loss and the music (when there is music) works well, and the plot (what ever you find that to be for yourself) is a wonderful mix of classic storytelling, blurred flashback moments, brief flashback moments, interesting cab rides, interesting character development, cats, jump cuts, psychic montages, long shots, and just plain silliness and funny confusion.Is this a Comedy or a Drama... You tell me because I do not know!