Rivette’s rarely seen yet biggest commercial hit, is an exhilarating combination of the themes of theatricality, paranoia and la vie Parisienne, all wrapped up in an extended and entrancing examination of the nature of filmmaking, and film-watching.

Celine, a magician, and Julie, a librarian, meet in Montmartre and wind up sharing the same flat, bed, fiancé, clothes, identity and imagination. Soon, thanks to a magic sweet, they find themselves spectators, then participants, in a Henry James-inspired ‘film-within-the film’, a melodrama unfolding in a mysterious suburban house with the ‘Phantom Ladies Over Paris’, a sinister man and his child. The atmosphere, however, is more Lewis Carroll, with Juliet Berto and Dominique Labourier as twin Alices. The four main actresses improvised their own dialogue in collaboration with Rivette and scriptwriter Eduardo de Gregorio.

Acknowledged by director Susan Seidelman as a huge influence on her own hit film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Celine and Julie Go Boating was Rivette’s greatest commercial and critical success – its freewheeling, playful spirit still capturing the imagination of new audiences today.

P.S This film doesn't quite have enough of a feline emphasis to be included as part of our Catnip mini season but there are also several cats in it. More importantly, the film ends with a close-up of a cat, leading film critic Jonathan Romney to muse, “This might be the only film in which the story is dreamed by a passing cat.”

Doors open 30 minutes before film start time.

Even if a screening is sold out, tickets are often available 30 minutes before the start of the film at the box office.