Love on the Ground Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Love on the Ground Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 13, 2023

Maybe when you were a child you discovered the "magic" of holding a hand mirror up towards another mirror like a wall mirror, or alternatively if perhaps your mother had one of those "trifold" moveable mirrors for make-up where you could aim one panel at another, you may have discovered the wonderful "infinity" of reflections that were suddenly available. Something cinematically analogous is at hand in Jacques Rivette's Love on the Ground, but for anyone familiar with Rivette's oeuvre, that is nothing especially surprising. This is another one of Rivette's films that offers layer upon layer playing (emphasis on play-ing) built on a radically blurred line between what is "real" and what is "performance". And, much like any number of other Rivette offerings from L'Amour Fou (still bizarrely missing on Blu-ray as of the writing of this review) to The Gang of Four, an offering which did have a recent Blu-ray release from Cohen, that "meta" aspect extends to both theater and film. Love on the Ground begins with an almost patented "infinity mirror" postulation by Rivette whereby a gaggle of people arrive at a private apartment to witness a theatrical performance being held there. Commentator Richard Peña offers some thoughts in his analysis as to what might have sparked Rivette toward this opening gambit, but I can state from personal experience there are so-called "immersive theaters" where the audiences are allowed to wander through a "set" while a performance is taking place, even though in my personal experience those productions have always taken place in a theater where an "immersive set" has been constructed. One way or the other the audience witnesses what amounts to a typical French farce wherein a hapless male named Silvano (Facundo Bo) attempts to keep two women he's involved with, Charlotte (Geraldine Chaplin) and Emily (Jane Birkin), from discovering the other one is also in the apartment. Even that setup is ultimately discarded in a really weird disjunctive sequence where it's almost like one or both of the women are ghosts unable to really fully participate in what's going on. Suffice it to say this is not the last time that Rivette will play with "reality" and perception.

Richard Peña has made the case in some of his other commentaries on Rivette features about how what seems to be going on in a Rivette picture, or perhaps given some relative stasis in narrative that sometimes attends Rivette's writing, what isn't going on, is often kind of a "mask" for subtextual issues. Even that "mask" aspect should hint at the fact that Rivette repeatedly returns to structures built around actors toeing an uncertain line between their real lives and some production or other. There are many who feel Rivette's efforts like La Belle Noiseuse (also out on Blu-ray from Cohen) are unbearably pretentious, and while I actually rather liked that film, Love on the Ground may strike some as a property that is, yes, multi-layered but perhaps somewhat empty nonetheless.

The "immersive theater" performance ends up revealing that Silvano, ostensibly the show's playwright, had actually ripped his concept off from Clément Roquemaure (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), a somewhat imperious guy who unfortunately for Silvano is part of the audience. He seems weirdly sanguine about it all, approaching Charlotte and Emily afterward to congratulate them on changes they had made to his concept, and inviting them to come to a rather luxe mansion he has in an isolated location. Now, this part of the story, especially since it ultimately involves Charlotte and Emily either wittingly or unwittingly taking part in an ostensible "performance", reminded me of the 1945 film noir My Name Is Julia Ross and its remake Dead of Winter. That may be an especially apt comparison in one way which won't be divulged here. At least in this case, Charlotte and Emily have each other, and there are a gaggle of other characters ultimately involved, including a magician named Paul (André Dussollier), adding even more to the "illusion vs. reality" aspect.

The result is indeed much like holding one mirror up to another, but vis a vis the "emptiness" alluded to above, if you don't have something in at least one of the mirrors, all you get is endless reflections of reflections, with no "real" content. There's a fascinating concept here, one that actually overtly refers to mirrors and reflections and/or visions, and while that underlying interest is almost always in Rivette's work, this may be too labored an exploration of ideas that the famed auteur (one actually at least partially responsible for the understanding of that term due to his long career in film criticism) has repeatedly returned to (and would again after this film, as at least The Gang of Four proves). The film's running time of three hours may indicate a certain lack of discipline or even self indulgence, since much of what happens can be repetitive. Chaplin and Birkin are both obviously interesting personalities, each occasionally mannered in their own way, but that perhaps only adds to the artificiality of certain moments.

Love on the Ground Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Love on the Ground is presented by Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As has regularly been the case lately with Cohen Film Collection releases, this is subbranded as one of the Classics of French Cinema. The kind of odd trailer (see below) and the cover of this release both tout a 4K restoration, and this presentation benefits from a generally very nicely suffused palette that emphasizes some of the hellish reds of the mansion where the women find themselves. Fine detail is also typically very good to excellent at least in the more brightly lit moments. There are a number of either nighttime scenes or scenes with very little if any lighting, and detail levels noticeably diminish, sometimes to the point of being indiscernable. There are a few passing variances with grain structure, suffusion, and clarity, with some interior scenes in particularly occasionally and briefly having a much grittier, less defined, appearance.

Love on the Ground Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Love on the Ground features a nicely expressive DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that more than capably supports what is almost always a dialogue driven film without a ton of sound effects or even music. While some scenes do venture outside for a moment or two, the bulk of this film plays out in interior spaces, and dialogue therefore typically has little to "compete" with, and is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. As has typically been the case with Cohen's releases of foreign language films, the English subtitles are forced.

Love on the Ground Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Richard Peña, Director Emeritus of the New York Film Festival and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Columbia University is accessible under the Audio Menu.


• Re-release Trailer (HD; 1:04) is kind of odd in that it touts a new 4K restoration while some inserts, like a red banner proclaiming its Venice Film Festival status, seem sourced from a way old trailer with wobble and lots of damage.

Love on the Ground Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I actually got some fun and rather funny private messages after my largely positive review of La Belle Noiseuse, which amounted to, "I always suspected you were out of your friggin' mind, but now I know for sure," including some responses from actual, honest to goodness, French folks who obviously had some knowledge about Rivette. I'll only say that perhaps Love on the Ground was "that" Rivette movie for me, for I found its, yes, interesting refracting of reality and illusion to itself be a reflection of too many other Rivette offerings I've seen. Chaplin and Birkin are an interesting focal pair, and some of the sidebar players have some fun moments (Paul in particular), but this may in fact be three hours of mirrors reflecting mirrors. Technical merits are generally solid and Richard Peña offers another interesting commentary, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.