Paris Belongs to Us (1961)

Anne Goupil is a literature student in Paris in 1957. Her elder brother, Pierre, takes her to a friend's party where the guests include Philip Kaufman, an expatriate American escaping ... See full summary »

Director:

Jacques Rivette

Writers:

Jacques Rivette (scenario and dialogue), Jean Gruault (scenario and dialogue)

Stars:

Betty Schneider, Giani Esposito, Françoise Prévost

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Betty Schneider	...	Anne Goupil
Giani Esposito	...	Gerard Lenz
Françoise Prévost	...	Terry Yordan
Daniel Crohem	...	Philip Kaufman
François Maistre	...	Pierre Goupil
Brigitte Juslin
Noëlle Leiris
Monique Le Porrier
Malka Ribowska
Louison Roblin	...	(as Louise Roblin)
Anne Zamire
Paul Bisciglia	...	Paul
Jean-Pierre Delage
Claus Von Lorbach
Jean Martin

Storyline

Anne Goupil is a literature student in Paris in 1957. Her elder brother, Pierre, takes her to a friend's party where the guests include Philip Kaufman, an expatriate American escaping McCarthyism, and Gerard Lenz, a theatre director who arrives with the mysterious woman Terry. The talk at the party is about the apparent suicide of their friend Juan, a Spanish activist who had recently broken up with Terry. Philip warns Anne that the forces that killed Juan will soon do the same to Gerard. Gerard is trying to rehearse Shakespeare's "Pericles", although he has no financial backing. Anne takes a part in the play to help Gerard, and to try to discover why Juan died.

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Plot Keywords:

man slaps a woman | telephone call | suicide | written by director | city name in title | 

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Taglines:

You Either Dig This Film Or You Don't

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French English

Release Date:

13 December 1961 (France)

Also Known As:

Paris Belongs to Us

Filming Locations:

Quartier Latin, Paris 5, Paris, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ajym Films, Les Films du Carrosse

Technical Specs

Runtime:

141 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

As an inside joke, in "The 400 Blows", the film Antoine and his parents go to see is "Paris Belongs to Us", which wouldn't be released for another two years.

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Quotes

Anne Goupil: [reading aloud from Shakespeare's The Tempest] Full fathom five thy father lies / Of his bones are coral made / Those are pearls that were his eyes / Nothing of him that doth fade / But doth suffer a sea-change / Into something rich and strange

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Connections

Referenced in Hitchcock/Truffaut (2015)

User Reviews

Ride the Wave

Anne Goupil (Betty Schneider) is a literature student in Paris in 1957. Her elder brother, Pierre, takes her to a friend's party where the guests include Philip Kaufman, an expatriate American escaping McCarthyism, and Gerard Lenz, a theater director who arrives with the mysterious woman Terry.

Begun in 1957 and completed three years later, it was then-critic Jacques Rivette's first full-length film as a director and one of the first works of the French New Wave, though it was not released theatrically until 1961. Oddly, it seems to be one of the lesser-known today, despite being a fascinatingly odd mystery.

Apparently many people say this film is "like a David Lynch movie". That similarity is there, so I appreciate that... but then the question becomes, does that mean that David Lynch films are "like a Jacques Rivette movie" since Rivette came first by quite a few years?