''Merry-Go-Round'' is a 1981 French

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

directed by

Jacques Rivette Jacques Rivette (; 1 March 1928 – 29 January 2016) was a French film director and film critic most commonly associated with the French New Wave and the film magazine '' Cahiers du Cinéma''. He made twenty-nine films, including '' L'Amour fo ...

, starring

Maria Schneider Maria Schneider may refer to: * Maria Schneider (politician) (born 1923), East German politician * Maria Schneider (actress) (1952–2011), French actress * Maria Schneider (musician) (born 1960), American musician and composer * Maria Schneider (ca ...

and

Joe Dallesandro Joseph Angelo D'Allesandro III (born December 31, 1948) is an American actor and Warhol superstar. He was a sex symbol of gay subculture in the 1960s and 1970s, and of several American underground films before going mainstream. Dallesandro star ...

. The film, which revolves around a kidnapping plot, follows a structure similar to that of a

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

. The script was written by Rivette in collaboration with Eduardo de Gregorio and

Suzanne Schiffman Suzanne Schiffman (née Klochendler; 27 September 1929 – 6 June 2001) was a French screenwriter and director for numerous motion pictures. She often worked with François Truffaut. The 'script girl' Joelle, played by Nathalie Baye in Tru ...

, with dialogue by de Gregorio. Filming took place in 1977, but the film remained unreleased until 1981.

Plot

Élisabeth (

Danièle Gégauff Danièle Gégauff (née Rosencranz; 1939–2007) was a French actress and line producer. She was married to the French actor and screenwriter Paul Gégauff. Danièle Gégauff also worked with executive producer Stéphane Tchalgadjieff. She playe ...

) sends telegrams to her ex-boyfriend Ben (Dallesandro) in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and to her younger sister Léo (Schneider) in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

to join her in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where she is selling her dead father's estate. On the day of their respective arrivals, Élisabeth fails to show up at the airport. Ben is initially lost, being barely able to speak any French; he meets Léo, who happens to be fluent in English. After both waiting in vain at the airport, they decide to search for Élisabeth, though she is eventually kidnapped as soon as they find her. The plot also involves a mystery about the activities of Léo and Élisabeth's absentee father, a wealthy man who went missing after being accused of fraud and is now presumed dead. His disappearance may be connected with that of a million dollars. Ben meets his sister, Shirley, who turns out to have been the girlfriend of Léo and Élisabeth's father. Léo and Ben investigate and find themselves into a series of strange, dangerous situations. The story is intercut with unexplained scenes of Ben running aimlessly in a forest, and being confronted by a hostile woman who wears the same clothes as Léo and vaguely resembles her.

Cast

as Léo *

as Ben *

as Élisabeth * Sylvie Meyer as Shirley *

Françoise Prévost Françoise Prévost (; c. 1680 in Paris – 1741 in Paris) was a French ballerina who helped establish dramatic dance in the early world of classical ballet. She was expressive, light and dramatic in style. In 1699, Prevost debuted at the Aca ...

as Renée Novick *

Maurice Garrel Maurice Garrel (24 February 1923 – 4 June 2011) was a French film actor. Garrel was born in Saint-Servais, Isère. He appeared in over a hundred films and was nominated twice for a César Award for best supporting actor: in 1991 for ''La ...

as Julius Danvers *

Michel Berto Michel Berto (; 25 December 1939 in Grenoble – 2 January 1996 in Paris) was a French actor. He was married to the actresses Juliet Berto and Marie Berto. His body was found on 3 January 1996, hence the exact date of his death is uncertai ...

as Jérôme * Dominique Erlanger as secretary *

Frédéric Mitterrand Frédéric Mitterrand (21 August 1947 – 21 March 2024) was a French actor, screenwriter, producer, and politician who served as Minister of Culture and Communication of France from 2009 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. Early life ...

as lawyer *

Jean-François Stévenin Jean-François Stévenin (; 23 April 194427 July 2021) was a French actor and filmmaker. He appeared in 150 films and television shows since 1968. He starred in the film '' Cold Moon'', which was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. He ...

as decorator * Pascale Dauman as nurse * Marc Labrousse as first accomplice * Jean Hernandez as second accomplice * Benjamin Legrand as chauffeur * Florence Bernard as woman in the cemetery *

Humbert Balsan Humbert Jean René Balsan (21 August 1954 – 10 February 2005) was a French film producer and chairman of the European Film Academy. He was known for securing financing and distribution for diverse and often challenging films. In February 2005, ...

as knight * Hermine Karagheuz as "the Other"

Production

During the 1970s, Jacques Rivette worked with producer Stéphane Tchalgadjieff on ''Scènes de la vie parallèle'', a projected four-film series which focused on enigmatic, supernatural stories. Of the four films, only the first two, '' Duelle'' and '' Noroît'', were completed, with Rivette suffering a nervous breakdown on the second day of filming the third one, ''Histoire de Marie et Julien'' (which he eventually remade in 2003). ''Merry-Go-Round'' was conceived, again with Tchalgadjieff's backing, in the aftermath of this project's collapse, once Rivette had recovered and decided that he needed a project to start over.Michael Ferguson,
Joe Dallesandro: Warhol Superstar, Underground Film Icon, Actor
', Open Road Media, 2015 Rivette and

had already considered working together before; the idea of ''Merry-Go-Round'' emerged after Schneider told Rivette that she would be interested in working with

. Rivette used the encounter between the two actors as a pretext for setting a story in motion. Rivette later said, in a interview with critics

Serge Daney Serge Daney (; June 4, 1944, Paris – June 12, 1992) was a French movie critic. He was a major figure of '' Cahiers du cinéma'' which he co-edited in the late 1970s. He also wrote extensively about films, television, and society in the newspaper ...

and Jean Narboni: "We had a starting point of course, and then we made up the beginning of a story, with a father who had disappeared, but all along we told ourselves, this is just a pretext for Maria and Joe to get to know each other. I like that idea: two people get together because a third, who has arranged to meet them, does not show up. There have no choice but to get to know each other." Rivette likened that situation with those that would occur during the war, in the context of the Resistance. But since he didn't feel like making a spy movie, he used a "more banal situation, two people convoked by a third who is only the sister of the one and the girlfriend of the other." Though Rivette had met Scheider before starting this project, he didn't really know either of the actors one month before shooting began. Principal photography began in 1977. The story was largely improvised and aspects were developed due to the difficult shooting conditions. Both lead actors were struggling at the time with drug addictions, with Schneider also undergoing severe emotional problems. Rivette himself was on the verge of a second nervous breakdown. Also, whereas the whole film was built upon the encounter between Schneider and Dallesandro, their working relationship quickly deteriorated. Dallesandro later said that it was Schneider who began detesting him, for reasons he was unsure about; nevertheless, he kept trying to cheer her up throughout the difficult production. According to Rivette, "since the relationship between Maria and Joe rapidly became hostile, we were forced to develop the story-line; from a mere pretext it took on a disproportionate importance." The director said that despite the chaotic production and having quickly realized that the film would not benefit his career, Dallesandro had shown "impeccable seriousness". Schneider eventually left production without completing her scenes, with actress Hermine Karagheuz (who had previously appeared in '' Duelle'') filling in for her during the scenes that featured Dallesandro running in the forest. Dallesandro later said, about this part of the production : "They kept shooting these scenes where I was running. Running, running, running. It got so bad that I wasn't even aware Maria had left the picture. She was so far away during those endless scenes that I had no idea they'd replaced her with a double. That's when I really understood that this movie could go on forever. If they'd have replaced me with a double, they'd still be out there shooting." Rivette kept filming improvised material with no end in sight. Eventually, Dallesandro injured himself by falling from a motorcycle. Even though the actor was willing to keep on working, the producers decided to use his injury as a pretext to stop filming, later claiming insurance in order to pay everyone involved. Rivette managed to edit the footage he had shot into a 2h30 film, but the finished product was found unsuitable for release by Gaumont. The film was only released in 1981 in Germany, and did not receive a general release in France - to lukewarm reviews - until 1983. At that point, Rivette had already rebuilt his career thanks to the release of '' Le Pont du Nord'' (1981). Rivette later commented that though the improvised storyline may have given ''Merry-Go-Round'' "a certain vagabond charm", it was "a film with a first half-hour that's quite coherent, and then it searches for itself three times."

Home media

''Merry-Go-Round'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-Ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

in 2019. It was also included into a 3-DVD set together with '' Duelle'' and '' Noroît''.

References

External links

* {{Jacques Rivette 1981 films 1981 crime drama films French crime drama films 1980s French-language films Films directed by Jacques Rivette 1980s English-language films 1980s French films English-language crime drama films French avant-garde and experimental films