Céline and Julie Go Boating
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INTRODUCED BY ANWEN CRAWFORD
Overview
Infused with the magic of Alice in Wonderland, director Jacques Rivette’s French New Wave fantasia Céline and Julie Go Boating indulges in the spellbinding adventures and giddy friendship of two Parisian young women. When magician Céline (Juliet Berto) meets librarian Julie (Dominique Labourier), it's not long before they discover a haunted house wherein a mysterious domestic drama plays out every day like a magical stage act. As the phantom ladies revisit the house, they begin to interact and interfere with the scene, hoping to save a young girl from her scripted murder.
Why See This Film
A delightful and incantatory trip down the rabbit hole, Céline and Julie Go Boating centres on one of our favourite filmic female friendships whose mischievous antics and metafictive agency is most reminiscent of Věra Chytilová’s Daisies (1966). The ‘aller en bateau’ (go boating) of the original French title also means ‘to be taken for a ride’, which is exactly what happens to Céline and Julie as they become enthralled by a magical scenario, and it is guaranteed to sweep you away too.
Introduced by Anwen Crawford
We’re excited to welcome Sydney-based writer, visual artist and zine-maker Anwen Crawford – author of No Document (2021) and Live Through This (2015) – to introduce this screening. Céline and Julie Go Boating is a film mentioned in her new book Morvern Callar, a critical study of Lynne Ramsay’s film published by Fireflies Press as part of their Decadent Editions series. Buy your copy at Golden Age from Tuesday 22 September.
BFFs
This film plays as part of our BFFs film series of best friends, frenemies, toxic bromances and so much more. Enjoy the second-hand emotions of watching people who love and love to hate each other, in allegedly platonic ways.
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