{ "id": "epywb2fbn4", "slug": "the-story-of-marie-and-julien", "title": "The Story of Marie and Julien", "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.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.romantic-drama-films-2000s", "label": "Romantic drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.romantic-drama-films-2000s" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.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.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s", "label": "Drama films 2000s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Story of Marie and Julien (Histoire de Marie et Julien) is Jacques Rivette's 2003 supernatural romance with Emmanuelle Béart and Jerzy Radziwilowicz, revived from a 1975 project abandoned after two shooting days.", "snippet": "The Story of Marie and Julien (Histoire de Marie et Julien) is Jacques Rivette's 2003 supernatural romance with Emmanuelle Béart and Jerzy Radziwilowicz, revived from a 1975 project abandoned after two shooting days.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2000s.romantic-drama-films-2000s", "markdown": "# The Story of Marie and Julien\n\n**The Story of Marie and Julien** (French: *Histoire de Marie et Julien*) is a 2003 French-Italian drama film directed by Jacques Rivette, in which a watchmaker's blackmail scheme becomes a supernatural love story with the woman he lost a year earlier. It stars [Emmanuelle Béart](https://www.edgepedia.org/emmanuelle-beart) as Marie, Jerzy Radziwilowicz as Julien, and Anne Brochet as Madame X, and runs about 150 minutes.[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) The film is unusual in its history: Rivette first began shooting it in the summer of 1975 with [Albert Finney](https://www.edgepedia.org/albert-finney) and [Leslie Caron](https://www.edgepedia.org/leslie-caron), abandoned it after two days when he suffered a breakdown, and revived it nearly three decades later from the notes of his then-assistant, Claire Denis.[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writers | Jacques Rivette; screenplay by Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer, and Christine Laurent[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) |\n| Cast | Emmanuelle Béart (Marie), Jerzy Radziwilowicz (Julien), Anne Brochet (Madame X), Nicole Garcia, Bettina Kee[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) |\n| Production | Pierre Grise Productions, producer Martine Marignac; France-Italy, 2003, 150 min, 35 mm[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) |\n| Crew | Cinematography William Lubtchansky, editing Nicole Lubtchansky; pre-existing music Blossom Dearie, \"Our day will come\"[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) |\n| Release | France and Belgium 12 November 2003; Luxembourg 28 November 2003[3](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/31250/) |\n| Origin | Aborted 1975 shoot with Albert Finney and Leslie Caron, stopped on the third day by Rivette's nervous breakdown[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html) |\n| Cycle | Third of a planned four-film cycle, first called *Les filles du feu*, later *Scènes de la vie parallèle*[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nJulien, a 40-year-old watchmaker with destructive impulses, repairs clocks in his half-empty house and decides to blackmail the wealthy Madame X, whose traffic in antique objects he has uncovered.[4](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2004/films/lhistoire-de-marie-et-julien) What he does not know is the more dangerous secret that links Madame X to Marie, a woman with whom he had fallen in love a year earlier and who has reappeared as inexplicably as she vanished.[4](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2004/films/lhistoire-de-marie-et-julien)\n\nMarie moves in with Julien, and their love intensifies, but she seems incapable of normal physical feeling, alternating between passion and an icy numbness, as if she came from a world where time has no value.[5](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/4/900-the-story-of-marie-and-julien) Julien, a man used to measuring everything by the hands of a clock, tries to crack the mystery and free her from it; together they reach a place ruled by love without limits, where questions of life and death do not exist.[4](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2004/films/lhistoire-de-marie-et-julien) The Karlovy Vary festival synopsis notes that the film builds its tension by turning an everyday environment into a deceptive labyrinth containing magic elements.[5](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/4/900-the-story-of-marie-and-julien)\n\n## The 1975 project and its collapse\n\n**The cycle.** In the mid-1970s Rivette, struck by two books on [Celtic mythology](https://www.edgepedia.org/celtic-mythology) by Claude Gaignebet and Jean Markale, set out to shoot four linked films with the aim of \"creating new myths\"; the cycle was first called *Les filles du feu* and later *Scènes de la vie parallèle*.[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html) By the summer of 1975 he had completed *Duelle* and *Noroît* and was preparing *Marie et Julien*, the third part.[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html)\n\n**Casting and preparation.** Rivette cast Albert Finney, then one of the prominent British stage and screen actors, and went to Los Angeles to recruit Leslie Caron.[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html) The story took shape in discussions between the director and his actors, in which his assistant [Claire Denis](https://www.edgepedia.org/claire-denis) took part; even at the first day of shooting, the film still lacked an ending.[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html) Denis wrote up these discussions as what Rivette called a \"continuité technique\", a technical continuity intended for the production team and the shooting schedule.[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/secrets-tournage/)\n\n**The breakdown.** To save time, Rivette had the cinematographer Willy Lubtchansky set up what he called the most complicated shot possible, a 360-degree exterior move taking in a café terrace and the elevated metro; a day was spent preparing it and a day shooting it. On the morning of the third day Rivette arrived on set unable to work, describing it as a classic nervous breakdown.[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html) In a 1987 *Cahiers du Cinéma* exchange on abandoned projects, he called the film his greatest regret as a filmmaker and his greatest remorse as a director, toward Caron and Finney, whom he had abandoned at the start of their common adventure.[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/secrets-tournage/) A scholarly account adds that the 1975 project, written with Eduardo de Gregorio under the title *Marie et Julien*, was inspired by the revenante story of Hitchcock's *Vertigo* (1958).[7](https://journals.openedition.org/recherchestravaux/pdf/5849)\n\n## Revival and the 2003 film\n\nDenis's text was published in 2002, with two other unproduced Rivette scenarios, under the title *Trois films-fantômes* (\"Three phantom films\"). Rereading the proofs gave Rivette the idea of taking the project up again; he said he realized that Marie was gradually taking on in his mind the silhouette, gaze, and voice of an actress he had worked with about ten years earlier, Emmanuelle Béart.[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/secrets-tournage/) From that mysterious text, which contains the note \"(PS. ne pas oublier le geste interdit)\" (\"do not forget the forbidden gesture\") without explaining the gesture, Rivette wrote *L'Histoire de Marie et Julien* with Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent, saying that the films he had made since 1975 had helped him solve what had remained an enigma at the time.[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html)\n\nThe 2003 film keeps several collaborators from Rivette's earlier work: Radziwilowicz had starred in *Secret défense* (1997), Nicole Garcia had been directed by Rivette in *Duelle* (1976), and Béart had played in *[La Belle Noiseuse](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-belle-noiseuse)* (1991).[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/secrets-tournage/) Rivette also used a digital effect for the first time in his cinema, for a single shot.[2](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html) The film was presented in official selection at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.[6](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/secrets-tournage/)\n\n## Reception and interpretation\n\nFrench critical response was divided. AlloCiné's aggregation of 19 press reviews gives an average of 3.6 out of 5.[8](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/critiques/presse/) *Cahiers du Cinéma* praised the film as a profound anatomy of the amorous bond and noted that Rivette filmed erotic scenes for the first time, while *Télérama* found the fantastico-romantic scenario repetitive and slow.[8](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/critiques/presse/) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 62% Tomatometer score from 13 reviews.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/histoire_de_marie_et_julien)\n\n**A depression reading.** In *Screen* (2014), Guy Austin, a film scholar at [Newcastle University](https://www.edgepedia.org/newcastle-university), proposed an allegorical reading of the film not as the received supernatural romance but as a portrayal of depression, drawing on [Julia Kristeva](https://www.edgepedia.org/julia-kristeva)'s *Black Sun* and on Abraham and Torok's work on how depression manifests in cultural forms; he argues the film exemplifies cinema's potential role as what Kristeva calls a \"counter-depressant\".[10](https://academic.oup.com/screen/article-abstract/55/1/73/1680316) The Rotterdam festival program, by contrast, located the film's emotional core in the horror genre, reading it as a fear of what was not done and of dying.[4](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2004/films/lhistoire-de-marie-et-julien)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Histoire de Marie et Julien, La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html)\n2. [Le cinéaste archéologue de son propre film, Le Monde (12 November 2003)](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2003/11/12/le-cineaste-archeologue-de-son-propre-film_4289975_1819218.html)\n3. [The Story of Marie and Julien, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/31250/)\n4. [L'histoire de Marie et Julien, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2004/films/lhistoire-de-marie-et-julien)\n5. [The Story of Marie and Julien, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival archive](https://www.kviff.com/en/programme/film/4/900-the-story-of-marie-and-julien)\n6. [Anecdotes du film Histoire de Marie et Julien, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/secrets-tournage/)\n7. [Les fictions enchâssées dans trois films de Jacques Rivette, Recherches & travaux](https://journals.openedition.org/recherchestravaux/pdf/5849)\n8. [Critiques Presse pour le film Histoire de Marie et Julien, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/critiques/presse/)\n9. [The Story of Marie and Julien, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/histoire_de_marie_et_julien)\n10. [Guy Austin, \"Decrypting depression in Rivette's Histoire de Marie et Julien\", Screen 55(1), 2014](https://academic.oup.com/screen/article-abstract/55/1/73/1680316)\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 › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Romantic drama films 2000s*\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/the-story-of-marie-and-julien", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-marie-and-julien.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": "\"The Story of Marie and Julien\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-marie-and-julien. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Story of Marie and Julien](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-marie-and-julien)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-marie-and-julien](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-marie-and-julien). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Story of Marie and Julien\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-story-of-marie-and-julien. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Story of Marie and Julien is Jacques Rivette's 2003 supernatural romance with Emmanuelle Béart and Jerzy Radziwilowicz, revived from a 1975 project abandoned after two shooting days." }