Jacques Rivette Packages the Classic Hollywood Musical his way.
DIRECTED BY JACQUES RIVETTE/FRENCH/1995
BLU-RAY STREET DATE: APRIL 11, 2023/COHEN FILM COLLECTION (via Kino Lorber)
Among the recent Rivette restorations resides the Nouvelle Vague director’s mostly interesting 1995 hodgepodge, Up, Down, Fragile (Haut bas fragile). Though made in close proximity to some more elaborate Jacques Rivette projects (primarily two Joan the Maid [Joan of Arc] historical pieces), this one exhibits a wholly contemporary (circa 1995), undecorated aesthetic. Like most of the director’s films, this one runs long. Two hours and fifty minutes, though with surprisingly outbreaks of singing and dancing.
Yes, Up, Down, Fragile is something of a not-so-secret musical, wherein characters express themselves most honestly during their unexpected numbers. The breezy choreography gives full credence to the critical claims citing the film as Rivette’s ode to the classic Hollywood musical. It’s deliberate in its color schemes in that old MGM way as well, as characters’ outfits (as ordinary and middle class as they otherwise are) are intentionally popping with color. Delightfully bright candy for the eye.
Less intuitive is the film’s title, “Up, Down, Fragile”. Did someone really just read the print on the outside of a delivered cardboard box, and decide that those three words are perfect descriptors of the story’s three main characters? So it seems….
Louise, Ninon, and Ida are three young women as different from one another as the actresses playing them are from each other. (Marianne Denicourt, Nathalie Richard, and Laurence Côte, respectively. All three helped concoct this screenplay). They are strangers, living very different lives in Paris, with less connective tissue between them than one may expect. (Unlike the dynamics in Rivette’s recent-to-this 1988 offering The Gang of Four, which has also been given a 4K restoration and Blu-ray release by Cohen Film Collection).
Louise, quite alone in life and feeling it, has recently awoke from a five-year coma, and now must deal with some unusual burdens. Namely, her unseen crooked father and Lucien (Bruno Todeschini), an unassuming fella whose presence isn’t as benevolent as it appears. Ninon, a spunky one with a blonde tuft and a flair for midriff shirts, was into crime, but now is into dancing. Being in this film, she gets several opportunities to cut various rugs. That is, in-between her new courier job, delivering items to random places via motor scooter. Here’s hoping the raging pimp she just broke free of will stay away. The guy murders someone in the first five minutes of this movie. Finally, there’s the demure Ida, who is consumed with finding the birth mother she never knew. Is it Sarah the lounge singer, played by French New Wave icon and longtime Rivette veteran, Anna Karina (The Nun, aka La Religieuse; 1966)?
The Blu-ray of Up, Down, Fragile from Cohen Film Collection (via Kino Lorber) sports the previously mentioned recent 4K restoration following its brief theatrical tour. Besides trailers both new and old for the film (4K re-release and original release), we are also treated to an audio commentary track by Richard Peña, Director Emeritus, New York Film Festival & Professor of Film and Media Studies, Columbia University. Like his commentary for The Gang of Four, Peña allows for gratuitous pauses in-between his expert observations. It’s a worthwhile listen in terms of information doled out; just don’t expect to hear from him for even half the runtime.
Although Up, Down, Fragile is considered highly among Rivette’s later works, I’d be lying if I said that it held my interest throughout. The individual performances (particularly the fascinating work by Marianne Denicourt) are as compelling as can be, as their roles are tailor made for them. Rivette’s musical moments are also not to blame; on the contrary, they are quite welcome in all their open-framed glory. This movie needs them. Yet, the various disconnects flowing through the film’s separate stories ever so slightly takes their thematic toll. At times, Up, Down, Fragile is delightful in its self-constructed freeform interchanges. Other times… it’s not unlike reading the print on a cardboard box.