Merry-Go-Round

I didn't even know Jacques Rivette's name before a retrospective for him started at this year's Viennale. Now I heard a lot about Rivette from the media, and I managed to see one film - and I'm really sorry for not being able to see another one!

This movie, Merry-Go-Round, was a great pleasure for me to watch because, against all odds, it turned out to be - a crime film! A crime film though, that formally switched between extreme realism (Rivette seams to be famous for letting the actors improvise a lot) and absurd postmodernism - but, after all, a fine story about criminals. Only that the criminals were not typical gangsters: a young American (played by an Italian but as he did it convincingly, I accept it) and the child-like and wild and very sexy Maia Schneider. And many more. Oh, and two po-faced musicians who perform the soundtrack of the movie before our eyes, live, so to say.

And above all, this movie was very funny - you wouldn't expect such a funny film from a filmmaker who is weird enough to make a motion picture that has a running time of 13 hours.

I should mention that the girl with whom I saw the movie had a head-ache afterwards. So, be careful.