Up, Down, Fragile is a musical, but you wouldn’t know it until past the first hour. That’s because it doesn’t start with a spectacular dance number, characters spontaneously bursting into song. Even when the tunes start, they start diegetically with a nightclub performance both the viewers and the characters witness. But further along the film, as the three women’s lives start to intersect, filmmaker Jacques Rivette plays with perception, flitting between song and reality to better capture the moods and growing bonds between its three leading ladies. Up, Down, Fragile pays homage to the classic Hollywood musical, while having fun playing with its rules.
"The acting veers between mischievous awkwardness and theatrical precision, and Rivette’s sly direction alternates to match..."
— Richard Brody
A librarian, a gangster's ex-lover and a woman who has recovered from a coma spend an eye-opening summer in Paris.
