This week will kick off the theatrical tour of Jacques Rivette‘s Out 1, a long-impossible-to-see 13-hour masterwork that, judging from my own reaction, couldn’t possibly feel any less new, surprising, or alive than it did in 1971. If you’re wishing to see it, however, patience is probably required. The scope of Carlotta Films and Kino Lorber’ run will (understandably) be limited — and their comprehensive Blu-ray package doesn’t arrive until January — so now, while curiosity hits (something of) a peak, is the finest time to share a Rivette title that’s markedly short, accessible, and, like almost everything else he made, wildly entertaining. It’s also the earliest place one could hope to start
That short film, Le Coup du Berger, is modest in scale, but the ambition of its narrative is uncommon and continually surprising, no matter the knowledge that its maker would later produce such long, dense triumphs. A minor-crime caper wrapped in a low-stakes conflict that is itself rooted in a deceitful relationship, it’s so palpably excited about the ins and outs of the story Rivette, Claude Chabrol, and Charles Bitsch have spun, a feeling that manifests itself in Berger‘s restless camera as much as the several layers of plot stacked together in 29 minutes. (For more spirit of camaraderie, take notice of two guests at the climactic party.) Now, as to how it’ll prepare you for Out 1… well, if you liked this, just imagine the pleasures that come with an even-more-complex plot that’s spun over approximately 26 times this length. But that doesn’t even scratch the surface.
Watch it below, along with, appropriately, Lewis Bond‘s well-edited video essay seeking to tell “the story of the French New Wave’s genesis in a nutshell”: