Summary
At a party, literature student Anne Goupil meets Philip Kaufman, a refugee from McCarthyist
America, and Gérard Lenz, a theatre director. Gérard is accompanied by a
young woman, Terry, who reveals that her boyfriend, a Spaniard, recently killed himself.
Intrigued and determined to discover the reason for the suicide, Anne joins Gérard’s
theatre company, who are rehearsing a performance of Shakespeare’s play Percicles.
Philip reveals that the Spaniard was the victim of an international terrorist organisation
and that Gérard is to be their next victim...
Review
Along with Claude Chabrol’s Le
Beau Serge and François Truffaut’s Les
Quatre cent coups, Paris nous appartient marks the debut of another great director
of the French New Wave, this time Jacques Rivette. For his first full
length film, Rivette combines a familiar thriller theme with that distinctively fresh
New Wave blend of contemporary realism and visual poetry.
Lacking the funds to make the film, Rivette relied heavily on his friends to give him financial and moral support. He borrowed money from Les cahiers du cinéma , the film review magazine on which he worked with Truffaut, Chabrol and Godard, whilst Chabrol and Truffaut supplied him with a camera and film. The film started as a something of a hobby in the summer of 1958 and was not released until 1960. Despite its rough and ready feel, Paris nous appartient is widely regarded as one of the seminal films of the French New Wave.
© James Travers 2002
Write a review for this film...
Lacking the funds to make the film, Rivette relied heavily on his friends to give him financial and moral support. He borrowed money from Les cahiers du cinéma , the film review magazine on which he worked with Truffaut, Chabrol and Godard, whilst Chabrol and Truffaut supplied him with a camera and film. The film started as a something of a hobby in the summer of 1958 and was not released until 1960. Despite its rough and ready feel, Paris nous appartient is widely regarded as one of the seminal films of the French New Wave.
© James Travers 2002
Write a review for this film...
User Comments
Useful links
- Best French films of 2011
- Best French films of the 2000s
- Best of the French New Wave
- Best of French film comedy
- The best 100 French films
- The most successful French films
- Great French filmmakers
Related links
- Other French films of the 1960s
- The best French films of the 1960s
- Other French thrillers
- The best French thrillers
- Biography and films of Jacques Rivette
To buy this film
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Credits
- Director: Jacques Rivette
- Script: Jean Gruault, Jacques Rivette
- Photo: Charles L. Bitsch
- Music: Philippe Arthuys, Ivo Malec
- Cast: Betty Schneider (Anne Goupil), Giani Esposito (Gerard Lenz), Françoise Prévost (Terry Yordan), Daniel Crohem (Philip Kaufman), François Maistre (Pierre Goupil), Paul Bisciglia (Paul), Jean-Claude Brialy (Jean-Marc), Claude Chabrol (Man at party), Jacques Demy, Jean-Luc Godard (Man in cafe), Jacques Rivette (Man at Party), Jean-Marie Robain (De Georges)
- Country: France
- Language: French
- Runtime: 140 min; B&W
- Aka: Paris Belongs to Us; Paris Is Ours
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- Les Félins (1964)
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- Quai des Orfèvres (1947)
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Important French filmmakers






- François Truffaut
- Jean Cocteau
- Abel Gance
- Jacques Demy
- Jacques Rivette
- Jean Renoir
- Jean Grémillon
- Jean-Luc Godard
- Marcel Carné
- Claude Chabrol
- Claude Lelouch
- Réné Clair
- Marcel Pagnol
- Eric Rohmer
- François Ozon
- Bertrand Tavernier
- Bertrand Blier
- Claire Denis
- Jacques Tati
- Jacques Audiard
- Maurice Pialat
- Robert Guédiguian
To buy Paris nous appartient:

Drama / Thriller


