Rivette uses every penny of the budget on a smoke machine and a massive flamethrower.
One of the most striking sequences in any Rivette film— a montage set to Piazzolla— shows Baptiste riding her bike and looking at statues from a myriad of different angles. It's dizzying and full of triumphant, adventurous spirit, the film comes to represent the joy of inventing something that can be viewed from so many angles simultaneously.
It becomes an immensely claustrophobic experience, all in…
