{ "id": "ep5rvfar5x", "slug": "merry-go-round-1981-film", "title": "Merry-Go-Round (1981 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films", "label": "1980s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Merry-Go-Round (1981) is Jacques Rivette's French mystery-drama starring Maria Schneider and Joe Dallesandro, shot in 1977, released in France in 1983 after Schneider quit and Rivette suffered a breakdown; third of the unfinished Scènes de la vie parallèle series.", "snippet": "Merry-Go-Round (1981) is Jacques Rivette's French mystery-drama starring Maria Schneider and Joe Dallesandro, shot in 1977, released in France in 1983 after Schneider quit and Rivette suffered a breakdown; third of the unfinished Scènes de la vie parallèle series.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1980s-films", "markdown": "# Merry-Go-Round (1981 film)\n\n**Merry-Go-Round** is a 1981 French film directed by Jacques Rivette, starring [Maria Schneider](https://www.edgepedia.org/maria-schneider-actress) as Léo and [Joe Dallesandro](https://www.edgepedia.org/joe-dallesandro) as Ben, two strangers summoned to Paris by telegrams from the same woman and drawn into a labyrinthine conspiracy. Although dated 1981, it was filmed in late 1977 and did not reach French cinemas until 6 April 1983, after a production marked by the lead actress's departure from the set and the director's nervous breakdown.[1](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/) • [2](https://www.offi.fr/recherche-850183.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / country | Jacques Rivette, France[3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1981/films/merry-go-round) |\n| Principal cast | Maria Schneider (Léo), Joe Dallesandro (Ben), Danièle Gégauff (Elisabeth), Françoise Prévost, Maurice Garrel, Michel Berto[3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1981/films/merry-go-round) |\n| Screenplay | Jacques Rivette, Eduardo de Gregorio, Suzanne Schiffman[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/54595.html) |\n| Cinematography / music | William Lubtchansky; improvised jazz by Barre Phillips (double bass) and John Surman (bass clarinet)[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/54595.html) • [5](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/merrygoround/) |\n| Production | Sunchild Productions, producer Stéphane Tchalgadjieff; original distributor Gaumont[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/54595.html) |\n| Filming and release | Shot in late 1977; first shown at IFFR 1981; French theatrical release 6 April 1983[1](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/) • [3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1981/films/merry-go-round) • [2](https://www.offi.fr/recherche-850183.html) |\n| Runtime | Reported as 160 minutes by the Cinémathèque française; festival listings give 153, 157, and 151 minutes[4](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/54595.html) • [6](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/merry-go-round/) • [7](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/merry-go-round-0) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nElisabeth (Danièle Gégauff) sends telegrams to her former boyfriend Ben, a New Yorker, and to her younger sister Léo, who is in Rome, asking them to join her in Paris, where she is selling her dead father's estate.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/merry_go_round_1981) The two have never met. When they arrive, Elisabeth is nowhere to be found, and the pair begin a scavenger-hunt-like search for her through Paris and the French countryside.[7](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/merry-go-round-0) • [3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1981/films/merry-go-round)\n\nThe search uncovers a conspiracy. According to Dennis Schwartz's synopsis, the sisters' father stole four million francs and probably faked his death in an airplane crash; Elisabeth is kidnapped, and a woman named Shirley appears with further confusing information.[5](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/merrygoround/) Rivette repeatedly cuts away from the shared quest into paranoid interludes in which each character imagines the other as a murderous antagonist, and Léo is played in these surreal scenes by Hermine Karagheuz rather than Schneider.[6](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/merry-go-round/) The film culminates in a climax set in sand dunes, which several critics count among Rivette's finest finales.[3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1981/films/merry-go-round) • [6](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/merry-go-round/)\n\n## Production and troubled release\n\nThe shoot was long and difficult. Rivette described it himself: \"We started work with the two actors, and after eight days, things were going very badly. It was like a machine that, once set in motion, must continue running despite changing regimes, forced or arbitrary accelerations, until the energy was all burned up, exhausted.\"[1](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/) Maria Schneider, then a recovering addict, left the production before it was finished; according to a later interview with co-star Joe Dallesandro, the actors encouraged Rivette to keep filming but also helped him recognize when to stop.[1](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/) Dallesandro's own drug use during the shoot is part of most accounts of the production.[6](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/merry-go-round/)\n\n**Aftermath.** After the chaotic shoot Rivette suffered a nervous breakdown, and the film could not be seen in France until 1983.[3](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1981/films/merry-go-round) [Le Monde](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-monde) reported in April 1983 that producers had kept it \"in a drawer\" since 1978, releasing it between the earlier Duelle and Noroît and the recent Le Pont du Nord.[9](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1983/04/15/merry-go-round-de-jacques-rivette_2848225_1819218.html) Claire Devarrieux's review found the hand-held camera work the strongest reason to see the film, while judging that the staging \"turns in a void\" as the plot's reversals pile up and cancel one another.[9](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1983/04/15/merry-go-round-de-jacques-rivette_2848225_1819218.html)\n\n## Place in Rivette's work\n\nMerry-Go-Round was a separate thriller made after the planned Scènes de la vie parallèle (Scenes of Parallel Life) series was interrupted.[13](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2024/08/jacques-rivette-chapter-from-film-the-front-line-1983-tk/) Only Duelle (1976) and Noroît (1976) had been completed; investors at the Centre National de la Cinématographie withdrew, and Rivette raised just enough money to make a separate thriller.[5](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/merrygoround/) • [13](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2024/08/jacques-rivette-chapter-from-film-the-front-line-1983-tk/) The failure of the project contributed to a depression that ended in his breakdown in the late 1970s.[1](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/)\n\nUnlike Duelle and Noroît, the film lacks overt supernatural or fantastical elements; it reworks themes Rivette had introduced in his first feature, Paris nous appartient (1961), namely paranoia, mystery, and madness, subverting crime-genre tropes in a tale of revenge, family conflict, and betrayal.[1](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/) A recurring symbolic device is the eighteenth-century satirical rhyme \"Cadet Rousselle\", quoted on a postcard that serves as a mysterious clue in the plot.[1](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/)\n\n**Reception.** Rivette himself called the film \"unfortunate\" in a 1990 filmed interview, invoking [François Truffaut](https://www.edgepedia.org/francois-truffaut)'s notion of \"great sick films\", works beset by problems that remain fascinating for what they attempted.[1](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/) Critics affixed the label film maudit (French for 'cursed film', one plagued by production troubles) to it on release, and Dennis Schwartz gave it a C, calling it \"a tough one to sit through\".[10](https://www.ica.art/films/rivette-merry-go-round) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/merry_go_round_1981) Later assessments have been more generous: the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London has described it as \"a stunningly original work and perhaps the quintessential manifestation of Rivette's cinema of this period\", a mystery that emerges organically from the fractious combination of its two stars and its director, in the spirit of [Out 1](https://www.edgepedia.org/out-1).[10](https://www.ica.art/films/rivette-merry-go-round) The chemistry between Schneider and Dallesandro, tracked by Rivette's hovering camera through stormy fights and hesitant rapprochements, is a large part of the film's appeal, though one festival note calls the result uneven, more so than any of Rivette's other films of the time.[7](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/merry-go-round-0)\n\nThe film has since circulated in restored form: it appears in Arrow Academy's Jacques Rivette Collection Blu-ray set alongside Duelle and Noroît, and a Japanese Blu-ray release carries an \"HD Restored\" label.[11](https://www.unseen-cinema.com/files/art/edizione.pdf) • [12](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD10847647)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Samm Deighan, \"Three Houses With Neither Beams Nor Rafters: Jacques Rivette's Merry-Go-Round from Crime Serial to Surrealistic Fable\", The Cine-Files](https://www.thecine-files.com/three-houses-with-neither-beams-nor-rafters-jacques-rivettes-merry-go-round-from-crime-serial-to-surrealistic-fable/)\n2. [Merry-go-round, L'Officiel des spectacles](https://www.offi.fr/recherche-850183.html)\n3. [Merry-Go-Round, International Film Festival Rotterdam 1981](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1981/films/merry-go-round)\n4. [Merry-Go-Round, La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/54595.html)\n5. [Dennis Schwartz, \"Merry-Go-Round\" review](https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/merrygoround/)\n6. [Keith Uhlich, \"Review: Merry-Go-Round\", Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/merry-go-round/)\n7. [Merry-Go-Round (Karussell), Viennale](https://www.viennale.at/en/films/merry-go-round-0)\n8. [Merry-Go-Round (1981), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/merry_go_round_1981)\n9. [Claire Devarrieux, \"Merry-Go-Round de Jacques Rivette\", Le Monde, 15 April 1983](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1983/04/15/merry-go-round-de-jacques-rivette_2848225_1819218.html)\n10. [Merry-Go-Round, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London](https://www.ica.art/films/rivette-merry-go-round)\n11. [Unseen Cinema festival passes catalogue (Jacques Rivette Collection, Arrow Academy)](https://www.unseen-cinema.com/files/art/edizione.pdf)\n12. [CiNii Books: Merry-go-round (Blu-ray)](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD10847647)\n13. [Jacques Rivette (chapter from FILM: THE FRONT LINE 1983), Jonathan Rosenbaum](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2024/08/jacques-rivette-chapter-from-film-the-front-line-1983-tk/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1980s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/merry-go-round-1981-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/merry-go-round-1981-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Merry-Go-Round (1981 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/merry-go-round-1981-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Merry-Go-Round (1981 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/merry-go-round-1981-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/merry-go-round-1981-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/merry-go-round-1981-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Merry-Go-Round (1981 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/merry-go-round-1981-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Merry-Go-Round is Jacques Rivette's French mystery-drama starring Maria Schneider and Joe Dallesandro, shot in 1977, released in France in 1983 after Schneider quit and Rivette suffered a breakdown; third of the unfinished Scènes de la vie parallèle series." }