Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974)

A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives preempted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.

Director:

Jacques Rivette

Writers:

Juliet Berto (scenario) (as Berto), Dominique Labourier (scenario) (as Labourier)

Stars:

Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Juliet Berto	...	Celine
Dominique Labourier	...	Julie
Bulle Ogier	...	Camille
Marie-France Pisier	...	Sophie
Barbet Schroeder	...	Olivier
Nathalie Asnar	...	Madlyn
Marie-Thérèse Saussure	...	Poupie
Philippe Clévenot	...	Guilou
Anne Zamire	...	Lil
Jean Douchet	...	M'sieur Dede
Adèle Taffetas	...	Alice
Monique Clément	...	Myrtille
Jérôme Richard	...	Julien
Michael Graham	...	Boris
Jean-Marie Sénia	...	Cyrille

Storyline

A mysteriously linked pair of young women find their daily lives preempted by a strange boudoir melodrama that plays itself out in a hallucinatory parallel reality.

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Plot Keywords:

female friend | alternate reality | magic | surrealism | bare breasts | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

18 September 1974 (France)

Also Known As:

Celine and Julie Go Boating

Filming Locations:

Montmartre, Paris 18, Paris, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,624, 6 May 2012, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$31,452, 16 September 2012

Company Credits

Production Co:

Action Films, Les Films 7, Les Films Christian Fechner

Technical Specs

Runtime:

193 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ranked number 81 non-English-speaking film in the critics' poll conducted by the BBC in 2018.

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Quotes

Julie: It doesn't hurt to fall off the moon.

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Connections

Referenced in Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

User Reviews

is this an end of the world film?

Just saw this film again. It must have been 30 years ago (gulp!) that I saw it last but I had such fond memories I had to drive across Scotland to see it in the art house film theatre that was finally showing it again. The film quality was very suspect - it must have been the original film print (ie the one I saw 30 years ago!) or a very dodgy copy. However what a buzz to see the film again! Can't say I noticed the heavy lesbian overtones last time - must have been young and naive. The plot takes a while to settle down but once it decides it's going to be a ghost/lesbian/murder mystery/science fiction/comedy story (!!) it really gets going. As the ghosts in the house are locked in a daily loop, re-enacting the murder of the child, so we see at the end that the film is locked in a bigger loop, when Celine and Julie (finally in a boat) with the rescued girl find the ghosts have dragged them into a cycle where the whole film repeats. They thought they had rescued the girl and broken her out of the loop, only to find that there's no escape and they are all trapped in a bigger loop. But what is the meaning of the interchangeable roles? Celine pretends to be Julie and vice versa at one stage in the story. And in the re-loop of the film at the end we see that we start off with the girls swapping roles. Is it a piece of social comment? - we're all trapped in roles that we repeat every day and these roles are interchangeable, one is as trapped as any other? If life in the film is stuck going round and round forever, doomed to repeat the days of the film like some sort of broken record repeating a song (vinyl - the good old days) - is this the ultimate end of the world film?