Vues Du Pic Saint Loup | 36

: The circus becomes a stage where reality and artifice blur, reflecting Rivette’s lifelong obsession with the theater of human existence. Themes and Style

: Vittorio, intrigued by Kate’s aloof melancholy, follows her and slowly embeds himself in the troupe’s daily life to uncover her secrets.

Jacques Rivette’s final film, 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup (released internationally as Around a Small Mountain ), is a bittersweet encore that trades his signature sprawling runtimes for a brisk, 84-minute meditation on performance and grief . Set against the sun-drenched landscape of southern France, it serves as a "minor gem" and a summation of a legendary career in the French New Wave. The Narrative: A Circus on the Outskirts 36 vues du Pic Saint Loup

“The film does indeed have about it an air of summation, or at least of farewell, as if it were the bittersweet encore at a closing night performance” Substack · (All (Parentheses)) Viewing Details Jacques Rivette's 36 Vues Du Pic Saint Loup - BOMB Magazine

The film opens with a chance encounter on a country road: Kate (Jane Birkin) is stranded by her stalled car until Vittorio (Sergio Castellitto), an Italian traveler in a sports car, swoops in to restart it with a few "superfluid" taps on the engine. : The circus becomes a stage where reality

“A whimsical eulogy of sorts to the New Wave icon’s treasured theme of life-as-performance. Modestly scaled and terse by Rivettian standards... it is a banquet of ideas about cinema and life” Reverse Shot

Critics often describe the film as a "playfully oblique" study of mortality and the mysteries of imagination. Set against the sun-drenched landscape of southern France,

: Reviewers at The New Yorker note that the way Rivette frames the peak against built artifacts mirrors how human identity is defined through performance within the film. Critical Perspectives