In the unbridled world of girlhood, anything is possible through the magical power of play. Céline and Julie Go Boating is a three-hour (plus!) arthouse behemoth that taps into girlhood like a dream, where you’re left only with the fragments you latch onto and attempt to explain. Widely considered the first time-loop comedy, it is delightfully curious and joyously unhinged. Nothing about this classic makes sense, because Céline and Julie eat psychoactive candy that allows their identities to meld. If one reads a book about magic, the other is a magician, and so on. They are linked in action through their slapstick efforts to rescue a ghost child from a haunted house. Directed by Jacques Rivette in 1974, the film represents the hopeful flip-side to the French New Wave’s romantic fatalism. Having inspired some of the identity play and mystery of Mulholland Drive and Desperately Seeking Susan, Céline and Julie Go Boating is like experiencing an afternoon of girlhood in film form.
11:30 a.m. July 17-18 at the Belcourt
2102 Belcourt Ave.
