Céline and Julie Go Boating
Friday, January 5 - Thursday, January 11, 2024
50th Anniversary Engagement!
“CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING is a film that invites, rather than insists, that we watch it more than once. The swaying, psychotropic narrative of the film constantly questions our attention and overall understanding of its extensively layered whimsy and metanarrative questioning.
The absurdity and irony of CELINE AND JULIE vibrates, questioning the association between innocuous details, shifting perspectives, the limits of reality, and the definition, as well as very existence, of the individual within a larger totality—all within a meta-mystery that slowly unravels over the course of three hours, yet somehow resists any ounce of disinterest in navigating its mythos. A fantastical, otherworldly adventure of two deeply interwoven heroes on an equally interwoven quest, CELINE AND JULIE GO BOATING is an outstanding and reciprocal inquiry into the building blocks of Romantic Melodrama and the power of pastiches (which is how I was introduced to it in film school), but beyond that, is simply some of the most fun you will ever have watching a movie.
No doubt you’ll leave the theater with a smile, as I do, thankful for what you have and excited for what’s to come. I insist that you come see this with your best friend—you’ll fall in love that much more!” — Staff Pick by Rhayne B., Projectionist
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland meets the freewheeling invention of French New Wave gamesman Jacques Rivette in this giddy surrealist fantasia. When magician Céline (Juliet Berto) meets librarian Julie (Dominique Labourier), it’s not long before they are launched through the looking glass and straight into a labyrinthine comic adventure involving a haunted house, psychotropic candy, and a murder mystery as, all the while, the line between illusion and reality grows ever fainter.
Screening as part of our series Staff Picks Summer 2023-Winter 2024.
- Country France
- Language French with English Subtitles
- Year 1974
- Running Time 193 minutes
- Distributor Janus
- Director Jacques Rivette
- Cast Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier
- Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil
IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.