: Kate is returning to her family’s small, struggling traveling circus—a world she abandoned years ago following a tragic accident.
“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 received generally favorable reviews, holding a 74% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 36 vues du Pic Saint Loup
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.
: Unlike Rivette's four-hour epics like La Belle Noiseuse , this film is "sedately whimsical" and flows effortlessly from scene to scene. : Kate is returning to her family’s small,
: 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
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 : Unlike Rivette's four-hour epics like La Belle
: Vittorio, intrigued by Kate’s aloof melancholy, follows her and slowly embeds himself in the troupe’s daily life to uncover her secrets.