OBIT - JACQUES RIVETTE

You have Jacques Rivette to thank for the films you watch. Credited by many, including Francois Truffaut, as perhaps the progenitor (among many) of the enormously influential French New Wave movement of filmmaking, M. Rivette died today, the 29th of January 2016, due to complications from Alzheimer's. He was 87 years of age. Despite never receiving the same level of international fame as his Cahiers du Cinema colleagues and fellow New Wave filmmakers, Rivette's diverse and experimental features rank among the most important works in film history. In particular, his rarely-screened thirteen-hour 1971 film Out 1, and his '74 Surrealist comedy Celine and Julie Go Boating have endured as two classics of their era, and prized pieces within the art form. Later works include The Gang of Four, La Belle Noiseuse, considered by some as his return to form, and Va Savoir (Who Knows?). During his career, Rivette was the recipient of a FIPRESCI prize, a Special Jury Prize and a Leopard of Honour from the Locarno International Film Festival, and other festival titles including two from Cannes and one more from Berlin. He is survived by his wife, Veronique, and will surely be missed by so many more.