Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

ninecurses Over the years, I have read so many articles on Out 1, and have seen so many stills from it, that I felt as though I'd already seen the movie. Out 1 already existed for me in such a big way, that finally watching it could only lead to disappointment. Sadly, this was the case. As great as Out 1's legend is, for me it never comes together. It's all promise unfulfilled.There are Holy Grail movies: Films written and talked about in reverential tones, yet largely unavailable to the public. Until recently, "Out 1" was one of these, and having lived with its legend for many years, I was giddy the day it showed up on Netflix. An eight-part film totaling about 13 hours? I was binge-ready! Unfortunately, it took only about half way thru the first segment for my enthusiasm to wane.But oh is it ever ambitious, and almost every concept and character that we are introduced to is inherently interesting. One example is in how two different acting troupes work toward discovery in the play that each is planning to put on - It seems to be a great metaphor for this very film - but their rehearsal scenes go on (and on), and there are so many of them. 10, 20, even 30 minute (!!) scenes of actors writhing around on dirty theater floors? I love the slower pace of foreign films, but it was just too much.The acting? Jean-Pierre Leaud, who I usually find fascinating, here just annoys the crap out of me. The rest of a very large cast, many of whom were big in French cinema, may or may not be doing good work. With long, rambling scenes inside of the film's overall loose structure, I actually couldn't tell. Rivette usually has one camera going, and he just lets it roll. Even his veteran actors at times seem lost.If being loose and letting things "just play out" was what Rivette was going for, I think that he could have made his point in less than 13 hours. Considering how much love Out 1 continues to get, perhaps it's just me who is missing out. Yet I can't help think that he not only let his actors down, but that he let his viewers down, too.I'll leave it to other reviewers to get into The Thirteen, Balzac, Lewis Carroll, conspiracies, paranoia, etc. It IS all very fascinating to read about.Having read (and heard) so much over the years, about both the film and its legend, it felt as though I had already seen the movie. I could recall its characters, style, and elements with clarity. Unfortunately, having now seen it, that movie has been erased from my memory. I should have stuck with the legend. Sadly, the "Out 1" of my mind no longer exists.

Sindre Kaspersen French screenwriter, film theorist and director Jacques Rivette's fourth feature film which he co-directed and wrote with French screenwriter and director Suzanne Schiffman (1929-2001), is an adaptation of a novel by French 20th century author Honoré de Balzac. It premiered in France, was shot on locations in France and is a French production which was produced by producer Stéphane Tchalgadjieff. It tells the story about a theatre director named Thomas whom is rehearsing with his theatre group, another stage director named Lili whom is doing the same, a multicolored and playful person named Frédérique who says she is searching for her brother, introduces herself to many people and who has an agenda, a law practitioner named Lucie, a mother and shop owner named Pauline whom is planning on publishing a newspaper with some friends, a writer named Sarah and a quiet though sometimes talkative person named Colin who lives in an apartment in France and is looking for someone referred to as the Thirteen.Distinctly and masterfully directed by French filmmaker Jacques Rivette, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints, draws an informative, mystifying and constantly changing portrayal of somewhat clandestine and collective human beings with a shared history who spends their time interpreting historic works of literature and their own psychological and emotional experiences of improvisation, a Frenchman motivated by a conspiracy theory and a pretender lost in deception. While notable for its versatile milieu depictions and distinct audiovisual innovation, this character- driven, narrative-driven and dialog-driven story about role playing, narrative fragmentation, the integral importance of interpreters of characters and how efficient and creative they are when treated with the dignity, humanity and professionalism which is characteristic for this creator and philosopher of cinema, the coexistence between fiction and reality within a cinematic context and the art of letting go and remembering with love, is an esoteric play with words where actress Juliet Berto performs magic in a scene with a man and a mirror and an unprecedented playact made the same year as the Manifesto of the 343 was published in the French magazine Le Monde, the year after the Roman Catholic Church named Italian 14th century Saint Catherine of Siena and Spanish 16th century Saint Teresa of Ávila as the first female Doctors of the Church, German citizens Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader created the Red Army Faction and after the French New Wave period, depicts multiple interrelated and mystic studies of character and contains a rare score by composer Jean-Pierre Drouet.This twelve hour and forty minutes voyage into the heart of cinema from the early 1970s which is set in Paris, France in 1970 and where the role of the director, the actors and the spectator is distinctly defined, is impelled and reinforced by its crucial narrative structure, subtle character development, measured continuity, confidence in actors, discussions about acting, black-and-white photographs, Thomas playing on a flute, Colin and his harmonica, masterful scene with Colin and Pauline at the L'Angle du Hasard, comment by an actress playing a journalist: "I should like to know … what political thinking underpinned your action?" and answer by an actress playing a goddess: "No politics." and the timeless and dearly appreciated acting performances by French actresses and actors Juliet Berto, Michèle Moretti, Hermine Karagheuz, Edwine Moatti, Christiane Corthay, Bernadette Onfroy, Bernadette Lafont, Bulle Ogier, François Fabian and Pierre Baillot, Michael Lonsdale and Jean-Pierre Léaud. A transcendently communicative and at times poignantly hilarious work of majestic diversity and unparalleled versatility.

davidgoesboating One has to be careful whom one tells about watching 12-hour long films. It could become easy for people to assume that this is some kind of regular occurrence - in fact, even in the world of 'arthouse' cinema, such mammoth running times are extremely rare, for obvious reasons. This is one thing that Hollywood and art cinema share in common: the generally accepted running time of 90-120 minutes, with a minority of movies that dare to approach, but rarely exceed, the three-hour mark.For this reason, a film like Out 1 (runtime: 729 minutes) is a challenge for even the most hardened cinephile, and it goes some way in explaining why it has only ever been screened on a handful of occasions and remains extremely hard to find.Originally devised as a TV series by maverick Nouvelle Vague director Jacques Rivette, it raised little interest from the French networks, and wound up being given a brief theatrical run instead (Peter Watkins was forced to do much the same with his brilliant nuclear war pseudo- documentary The War Game, although that had more to do with state censorship than issues with running time). Shown a couple of times in 1971, Out 1 has re-emerged at a handful of Rivette retrospectives over the last two decades, and many who have seen it, including esteemed US critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, have acclaimed it as one of the greatest films of all time.Is it? Well, yes, if you like Rivette. That alone is a big 'if', as Jacques Rivette has never been a commercially successful director. Only two of his films were hits (Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) and La Belle Noiseuse (1991), both superb), and many remain difficult to find on DVD today (Out 1 only recently became available over the internet after a rare videotape was uploaded). Nevertheless, he is greatly respected within the film community, and with good reason - his playfully surreal narratives, sense of pacing and use of improvisation set him apart as one of cinema's most unique and satisfying film-makers.Out 1 deals with a theme that re-occurs throughout Rivette's work: the nature of acting, particularly in the context of theatre and improvisation. His fascination with acting make Rivette's films a far more collaborative process than many of his contemporaries, as the improvisational aspects allow actors to have a far more active role in determining how the film comes together. Out 1 is roughly divided into four major narratives, gradually intertwining and blurring as the film develops: two consisting of acting troupes, each trying to devise post-modern theatrical adaptations of Aeschylus plays; the other two individual petty thieves (played by Nouvelle Vague icons Jean-Pierre Léaud and Juliet Berto) pursuing eccentric methods of making money; and an overarching plot involving a mysterious Balzac-inspired conspiracy centred around an organisation known as 'the thirteen'.As with any Rivette film featuring a 'conspiracy' narrative, the mysteries and secret organisations are little more than a red herring. As the characters are slowly explored and revealed and their plans and interpersonal connections break down, the film becomes increasingly symbolic of post-1968 ennui and the decline of the ideals of that era. For a film made in 1971, these were remarkably prescient themes; another French director in Jean Eustache would tackle this topic equally satisfyingly in his 1973 masterpiece The Mother and the Whore. But this is not the limit of Out 1's scope. Comprised of eight episodes of roughly 90 minutes each (the beginning of each episode has a brief, abstract black-and-white still montage of the events of the previous chapter), Out 1 is no less watchable than any quality TV series, and may even be better experienced on a one-episode- at-a-time basis. This is not to say that it doesn't remain challenging even when viewed in segments. Like most Rivette films, it uses the first few hours to simply establish the characters before embarking on the plot, of sorts, and some of those early scenes (particularly the sequences depicting the actors' heavily abstracted 'exercises') seem interminably long. These scenes are important, however, not just as an exploration of the improvisational acting methods that play both a literal and a metaphorical role in the film, but as a method of adjusting the viewer to the somewhat languorous pace of the film. Paradoxically, long takes make long films far more tolerable for an audience, and this understanding of pacing has led Rivette, along with more modern directors like Michael Haneke and Béla Tarr, to create films with less commercial running-times that nevertheless retain the capacity to leave viewers enthralled.In a film that is in many ways about acting, the acting is fantastic. Many famous Nouvelle Vague faces appear, including the aforementioned Léaud and Berto, the outstanding Michel Lonsdale and Rivette regular Bulle Ogier. Even another legendary director in Eric Rohmer has a great cameo as a Balzac professor who appears in a pivotal scene. The people and architecture of Paris c. 1971, though, seem to have an equally significant role - the city landscapes, crowd scenes and interested onlookers freeze Out 1 in time, a document of a place at a point in history.After a little more than 720 minutes, the film ends on an impossibly brief, enigmatic note; yet, the exhausting journey that the viewer has taken is so full of possibilities, intricacy and spontaneity, that one would be forgiven for wanting to start all over again from the beginning, or see the next twelve hours in the lives of these characters. For those who have watched many kinds of cinema and think they have seen everything the art form has to offer, Out 1 is a reminder that cinema has the potential to be so many more things and diverge in so many more directions than current conventions allow. For film-makers, film critics and artists of all disciplines, this is something to be cherished.

luigi_aiello I think that Pierre Léaud, or his character, to be precise, is really outlandish but with grace: I also remember the chess player, and of the girl who seems to be appearing by chance in his home, something really curious...the woman acting as the lawyer, is to me one of the most beautiful actresses ever seen on the screen...but I must admit that the plot is too inconsistent to be taken seriously....The character who plays as the lead theater actor is really nice, especially when he's annoyed by the new actor, the one in purple t-shirt...also, the scene where the bearded actor - who belongs to another company - directs the stage is really fascinating and relaxing, as it often happens with this movie - for example, when they drink tea, they just make you want to have a cup...