Part of our Masters: Jacques Rivette series. Restoration courtesy of Arrow Films and the American Genre Film Archive.
Directed by Jacques Rivette | France | 135 mins
The second film in the proposed cycle Scènes de la vie parallèl, Noroît, loosely adapted from the classic Jacobean play The Revenger’s Tragedy (the authorship of which is now widely attributed to Thomas Middleton), reorients the basic schematic of its predecessor Duelle, swapping out a war between celestial goddesses for one between pirate queens. Morag (Geraldine Chaplin) is mourning the death of her brother, responsibility for which she attributes to the power-mad Giulia (Bernadette Lafont), leader of an isolated band of pirates who occupy a remote island castle. Morag vows revenge, enlisting the assistance of Erika (Kika Markham), who operates as a piratic double agent. Various parties become involved in overlapping conspiracies, and a staged piece of amateur theatre, veiled commentary in the manner of Hamlet’s play within a play, sets in motion the final apocalyptic showdown between Morag and Giulia, two larger than life and monomaniacally vengeance-bent matriarchal archetypes with nothing left to lose.
If The Revenger’s Tragedy is now customarily attributed to Thomas Middleton, it was once believed to be the work of Cyril Tourneur. Antonin Artaud, scion of the “theatre of cruelty,” believed the play to have been Tourneur’s work when he had earlier adapted it in outlandish, provocative fashion. Artaud was apparently on Rivette’s mind when he set out to make Noroît, and it is worth noting that Artaud’s avant-garde vision of extreme, confrontational performance is roughly contemporaneous with Claude Lévi-Strauss and the emergence of structural anthropology as a discipline. Both the aesthetic and milieu of Noroît are consciously evocative of Fritz Lang’s Technicolor pirate opus Moonfleet (1955). This is also the film where Rivette went furthest in explicitly incorporating elements from operatic dramaturgy. Following Noroît, a third film from Scènes de la vie parallèl, The Story of Marie and Julien, originally meant to feature an English-speaking cast, stalled early into its production (Rivette said to have succumbed to “nervous exhaustion”), ultimately to be made with Emmanuelle Béart and Jerzy Radziwilowicz in 2003.
-Written by Jason Wierzba
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Community Partner: La Cité des Rocheuses
Since 1996, La Cité des Rocheuses has been promoting cultural enrichment, and intercultural and multidisciplinary dialogue in French in Calgary. La Cité des Rocheuses coordinates and presents numerous cultural, artistic, and educational events for the community and youth of the Calgary region.
In the spirit of respect, reciprocity and truth, we honour and acknowledge that this screening takes place on Moh’kinsstis and the traditional Treaty 7 territory, as well as the oral practices of the Blackfoot confederacy: Siksika, Kainai, Piikani as well as the Îyâxe Nakoda and Tsuut’ina nations. We acknowledge that this territory is home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3 within the historical Northwest Métis homeland. Finally, we acknowledge all Nations, Indigenous and non, who live, work and play, as well as help steward this land, honour and celebrate this territory.