# The Story of Marie and Julien
**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)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Jacques Rivette; screenplay by Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer, and Christine Laurent[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) |
| Cast | Emmanuelle Béart (Marie), Jerzy Radziwilowicz (Julien), Anne Brochet (Madame X), Nicole Garcia, Bettina Kee[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) |
| Production | Pierre Grise Productions, producer Martine Marignac; France-Italy, 2003, 150 min, 35 mm[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) |
| Crew | Cinematography William Lubtchansky, editing Nicole Lubtchansky; pre-existing music Blossom Dearie, "Our day will come"[1](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html) |
| Release | France and Belgium 12 November 2003; Luxembourg 28 November 2003[3](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/31250/) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Julien, 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)
Marie 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)
## The 1975 project and its collapse
**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)
**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/)
**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)
## Revival and the 2003 film
Denis'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)
The 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/)
## Reception and interpretation
French 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)
**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)
## References
1. [Histoire de Marie et Julien, La Cinémathèque française](https://www.cinematheque.fr/film/87077.html)
2. [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)
3. [The Story of Marie and Julien, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/31250/)
4. [L'histoire de Marie et Julien, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2004/films/lhistoire-de-marie-et-julien)
5. [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)
6. [Anecdotes du film Histoire de Marie et Julien, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/secrets-tournage/)
7. [Les fictions enchâssées dans trois films de Jacques Rivette, Recherches & travaux](https://journals.openedition.org/recherchestravaux/pdf/5849)
8. [Critiques Presse pour le film Histoire de Marie et Julien, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-49127/critiques/presse/)
9. [The Story of Marie and Julien, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/histoire_de_marie_et_julien)
10. [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)
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*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*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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