Flashback: Out 1 (1971) – Jacques Rivette’s 13-hour magnum opus
Rivette’s experimental epic about rival theatre companies staging Aeschylus has recently been restored and all eight parts are being screened over two days as part of Hong Kong International Film Festival
This 13-hour experimental film by acclaimed French new wave filmmaker Jacques Rivette used to be a mystery for cineastes. The 1971 film spent decades languishing in obscurity.
Out 1 was recently restored, and all eight parts are now, oddly, also available on the United States catalogue of Netflix. While not exactly a rediscovered masterpiece – it’s too obscure, and too idiosyncratic, to be considered an undisputed classic – this is still a fascinating piece of cinema that’s an easier watch than its great length and experimental nature suggest.
Out 1 is not a gay reference but Rivette’s grumpy riposte to the youth culture of the 1960s, which decreed what was fashionable by denoting it “in”. Unlike such experimental works as One Plus One (1968), by Rivette contemporary Jean-Luc Godard, there is an overarching plot, although it’s purposely labyrinthine and convoluted.
The multilayered story, which is in eight parts, hinges around two avant-garde theatre groups, both in rehearsals to stage different plays by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. There’s also a young man, Colin (new wave star Jean-Pierre Léaud), who poses as a deaf mute to extort money from café-goers, and female petty criminal Frederique (Juliet Berto, who had appeared in films by Godard), with a penchant for blackmail.
