Rated 7+ IMDb · 70%+ RT Little-known finds Curated by humans
Rated 7+ IMDb · 70%+ RT Little-known finds Curated by humans
1995 Movie
Dir. Jacques Rivette · France, Switzerland · French
Three women play with possibility in this elegant deconstruction of the movie musical
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.
A librarian, a gangster's ex-lover and a woman who has recovered from a coma spend an eye-opening summer in Paris.
"The acting veers between mischievous awkwardness and theatrical precision, and Rivette’s sly direction alternates to match..."
— Richard Brody
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
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