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Around a Small Mountain

Play trailer Poster for Around a Small Mountain 2010 1h 25m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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74% Tomatometer 23 Reviews 52% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
A wanderer (Sergio Castellitto) joins a woman's (Jane Birkin) small traveling circus and helps her overcome her tortured past.

Critics Reviews

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Keith Uhlich Time Out 12/26/2020
The film [has] about it an air of summation, or at least of farewell, as if it were the bittersweet encore at a closing night performance. Go to Full Review
Miriam Bale Film Comment Magazine 11/13/2013
elegant, simple structure ( ... ) Rivette provides a male lead, finally, to rival his decades of devotion to actresses from Juliet Berto and Jane Birkin to Geraldine Chaplin and Bulle Ogier Go to Full Review
John Hartl Seattle Times 08/26/2010
2.5/4
Rivette is 82 now, and his best work may be behind him. Go to Full Review
Jana Monji Age of the Geek 08/13/2021
3/5
Director Jacques Rivette co-wrote the movie 36 Vues du Pic Saint-Loup with Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent. Retitled in EnglishAround a Small Mountain,some of the poignant poetry of the title is lost. Go to Full Review
Mattie Lucas From the Front Row 08/05/2019
3.5/4
Rivette is an old master whose consummate craft is alive and well in his latest film. Go to Full Review
A.S. Hamrah n+1 05/03/2018
Strange and buoyant. The way Jane Birkin pauses in a sunny graveyard demonstrates Jacques Rivette's interest in stopping his performers short at moments of reflection. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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laurent b 02/04/2013 I've never seen a movie with such a dull acting. Aweful. See more 03/30/2012 It's a movie that seems like a play about a circus that's in part about acting and making a movie. For all that, though, it's quite a glancing attempt to address that or any of the topics. See more walter m @Harlequin68 02/14/2012 Even with a relatively brief running time, Jacques Rivette is in no hurry with the deliberate pacing in his latest film, "Around a Small Mountain," as if he is unwilling to say farewell to the dying artform of the traveling circus, this one being sparsely attended. In fact, mortality hangs over the movie, not only with the circus' death defying acts but also in its signature Entrance that the movie keeps returning to. Another way of looking at the circus is like something out of the past like Vittorio's(Sergio Castellitto, also one of the screenwriters) gentlemanly behavior towards Kate(Jane Birkin) in coming to her rescue when she breaks down on the side of the road on the way to return to the circus for the first time in fifteen years. See more 07/24/2011 The quiet simplicity to this film is endearing, even as it tracks the life of a small circus on its last legs. The performers struggle to breathe life into old material, while the audience generally sits in silence. Yet underneath it, with the ring as the centerpiece of the film, one still gets the sense of the magic of the act of performance, the intimacy between performer and audience, and the terrifyingly narrow line between the possible and the impossible. See more 07/12/2011 demasiado lenta para mi... :$ See more 07/12/2011 The meaning of seeing Rivette now is no longer for its content but for he is one of the very few remain Nouvelle Vague masters. It inherits the simplicity of the Vague and tells a story that intrigues you with small bits here and there. There's nothing really exciting about the story, but the excitement would be contained in your discoveries from the film. Another reason to see it: it's the only Rivette film which is under 2 hours(and even way under!). See more Read all reviews
Around a Small Mountain

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Movie Info

Synopsis A wanderer (Sergio Castellitto) joins a woman's (Jane Birkin) small traveling circus and helps her overcome her tortured past.
Director
Jacques Rivette
Producer
Maurice Tinchant, Martine Marignac, Luigi Musini, Robert Cicutto, Ermanno Olmi, Sergio Castellitto, Margaret Mazzantini
Screenwriter
Jacques Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent, Shirel Amitay, Sergio Castellitto
Distributor
Cinema Guild
Production Co
Pierre Grise Productions, RAI Cinema, Cinemaundici, France 2 Cinéma
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Theaters)
Jul 9, 2010, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 17, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA)
$31.0K
Runtime
1h 25m