In search of Jacques Rivette’s Paris: locations from his films, then and now

Like several of the French New Wave directors, Jacques Rivette began his career as a critic for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma. He moved into directing with some accomplished short films and then his 1961 feature debut Paris nous appartient. Lengthy, complex and often experimental, Rivette’s cinema provided some of the nouvelle vague’s most mysterious films, with long running times, improvised plots and large casts featuring some of France’s most well-known actors.

Many of his best and most complex films are set in Paris, where adventures in the capital more often than not seem to intensify Rivette’s desire for dramatic experimentation. His shots and narratives become as long as the city’s boulevards and as winding as its streets and pavements.

In Rivette’s hands, Paris becomes a puzzle to solve. In films such as Out 1 (1971) and Le Pont du Nord (1981), the buildings and boulevards become vast gaming boards for secret sects, nebulous conspiracies and abstract crimes. Rivette’s cinema explores the dark, surreal and playful layers of the city, which is often filmed entirely on location and in unusual places.

Here are five of his Parisian locations as they stand today.

In his debut feature, Rivette made his mission statement clear: to show Paris as a strange, endless labyrinth. Featuring some of his strongest images of the city, Paris nous appartient (or Paris Belongs to Us) showcased Rivette’s eye for detail, from vast rooftop shots to street-level nonchalance. In one of the film’s most famous sequence, he revels in the streets of the Left Bank, filming on Boulevard Saint-Germain.

The scene in question focuses on the vast brasserie of Le Royal, which sat on the boulevard opposite the more famous Les Deux Magots. In this scene the character of Anne (Betty Schneider) is sat at a table outside. The scene is most famous, however, for featuring a cameo from fellow nouvelle vague director Jean-Luc Godard. Today, the space is occupied by an Armani shop.

This shot shows the opposite side of the road, with the tower of the Église de Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the background.

Rivette’s most ambitious project, and certainly his longest – with a running time of almost 13 hours – the episodic Out 1 presents many challenges to both the casual viewer and film location fan. Co-written and directed by Suzanne Schiffman, and shot entirely on location around Paris and Normandy, the film is packed with interesting locations as its murky story of a Balzacian secret society goes in and out of focus. One of the film’s most memorable sequences concerns the character of Colin played by Jean-Pierre Léaud.

Throughout the drama, Colin harasses people in various cafés using a harmonica, annoying customers by constantly blowing it until they give him money to go away. The cafés in question were all on the Champs-Élysées. The first café was on the corner where the avenue meets Rue de Marignan. The café has gone today, though the location is still recognisable due to the steps of the Franklin D. Roosevelt station in front.

The café looked right out to these steps beyond the outdoor seating. The avenue has changed dramatically, but this feature remains.

When Colin leaves this café, Rivette and his cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn film the wider avenue.

But one of the other cafés where Colin harasses customers has survived. This is Le Deauville further up the avenue. Its outer smoking area is where Colin is seen armed with his trusty harmonica. The smoking area in question is now simply a regular part of the restaurant, still standing next to the Longchamp shop.

Rivette’s subsequent film, Céline and Julie Go Boating, is a surreal, summery experiment in playful, urban absurdity. The northern arrondisements of Paris look particularly picturesque, especially when Céline (Juliet Berto) is first spotted by Julie (Dominique Labourier) in a park. This little green space is the Square Suzanne Buisson in Montmartre.

Julie spots Céline as she bizarrely wanders through the park dropping things. Julie picks these objects up as she goes, following her in order to give them back.

The pair end up leaving the park from the exit where Rue Simon Dereure meets Place Casadesus.

Céline manically heads to a set of steps on Place Casadesus. These steps lead to a footpath that crosses to another road.

Julie follows Céline along this ornate path which is still as it was, barring a huge security screen protecting one side of a house.

Featuring performances from mother and daughter Bulle and Pascale Ogier, Le Pont du Nord is one of Rivette’s most beguilingly ambiguous films. Turning the whole of Paris into a kind of game, the film collects an unusual series of visual references. One of the more place-based motifs is an emphasis on Paris’s various statues of lions. When Baptiste (Pascale Ogier) rides around the city on her motorbike, she spots various examples. The first she sees is in Place de la Nation.

Rivette’s film then shows a close-up of the lions on the monument, which were sculpted by Jules Dalou.

Next, Rivette shows some more lions on a statue on the Monument à la République. This shot is taken from Rue du Temple.

The lion, sculpted by Léopold Morice, is emphasised in the next shot from the perspective of Baptiste from her bike. Sadly the monument is currently vandalised.

Finally, Baptiste spots the lions attached to the Hotel de Ville on Rue de Lobau, sculpted by Auguste Cain.

Following a possible conspiracy in the family history of Sylvie (Sandrine Bonnaire) and the murder of her father, Paris is especially dark and moody in this later Rivette film. A great example of the different tone of this film is apparent when Sylvie runs out of her flat looking for someone who isn’t there. The flat is on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir.

Cinematographer William Lubtchansky films the moody boulevard at night, barely lit by its street lights. This shot looks north up the road.

Another shot shows Sylvie directly outside of the building used for the flat. The building is number 42.

Spectres: The Cinema of Jacques Rivette runs until June.