Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

Sight and Sound Critics’ Poll: Greatest Films of All Time

Céline and Julie Go Boating

3h 14m

Directed by Jacques Rivette • 1974 • France
Starring Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier

Whiling away a summer in Paris, director Jacques Rivette, working in close collaboration with his stars and coconspirators Juliet Berto and Dominique Labourier, set out to rewrite the rules of cinema in the spirit of pure play—moviemaking as an anything-goes romp through the labyrinths of imagination. The result is one of the most exuberantly inventive and utterly enchanting films of the French New Wave, in which Julie (Labourier), a daydreaming librarian, meets Céline (Berto), an enigmatic magician, and together they become the heroines of a time-warping adventure involving a haunted house, psychotropic candy, and a murder-mystery melodrama. Incorporating allusions to everything from Lewis Carroll to Louis Feuillade, CÉLINE AND JULIE GO BOATING is both one of the all-time-great hangout comedies and a totally unique, enveloping cinematic dream space that delights in the endless pleasures and possibilities of stories.

Up Next in Sight and Sound Critics’ Poll: Greatest Films of All Time

  • The Spirit of the Beehive
    1:38:56
    The Spirit of the Beehive

    The Spirit of the Beehive

    Directed by Víctor Erice • 1973 • Spain
    Starring Ana Torrent, Isabel Tellería, Fernando Fernán Gómez

    Criterion is proud to present Víctor Erice’s spellbinding THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (EL ESPÍRITU DE LA COLMENA), widely regarded as the greatest Spanish film of the 1970s. In a small Castilian vi...

  • Chungking Express
    1:42:57
    Chungking Express

    Chungking Express

    Directed by Wong Kar Wai • 1994 • Hong Kong
    Starring Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro

    The whiplash, double-pronged CHUNGKING EXPRESS is one of the defining works of 1990s cinema and the film that made Wong Kar Wai an instant icon. Two heartsick Hong Kong cops (Takeshi Kaneshiro ...

  • Yi Yi
    2:53:41
    Yi Yi

    Yi Yi

    Directed by Edward Yang • 2000 • Taiwan, Japan
    Starring Nianzhen Wu, Elaine Jin, Issey Ogata

    The extraordinary, internationally embraced YI YI (A ONE AND A TWO . . .), directed by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang, follows a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginnin...

×