MERRY-GO-ROUND

“Jacques Rivette presents mysteries as an afterthought. They're never quite as important as what is happening in the direct moment.” -- Willow Catelyn, Letterboxd

So the story goes: Having completed only two (DUELLE, NOROIT) of the proposed four films in his quick-succession series Scenes from a Parallel Life, Jacques Rivette found himself hounded by investors and teetering on the edge of sanity. The result: MERRY-GO-ROUND, a fascinatingly nonsensical ramble through the director’s own inland empire.

Featuring a scruffy Joe Dallesandro and a sleepy-eyed Maria Schneider as they wander the French countryside in search of the elusive Elisabeth, the former’s girlfriend and the latter’s sister. There are tenuous connections to the two previous “Parallel Life” films, though MERRY-GO-ROUND stands quite defiantly on its own.” (Keith Uhlich, Slant)