Around a Small Mountain

Legendary director Jacques Rivette’s AROUND A SMALL MOUNTAIN, a tale of lost love, chance encounters and the transformative power of art starring Sergio Castellitto and Jane Birkin. The exclusive Los Angeles engagements will begin on Friday, July 30th at the Monica 4-Plex in Santa Monica and Playhouse 7 in Pasadena.

On a winding mountain road, Vittorio (Castellitto) stops to help Kate (Birkin), whose car has broken down. After gallantly making the repair, he speeds off. Later in town, Vittorio learns that Kate has returned to join her family’s traveling circus after leaving under mysterious conditions many years earlier. Intrigued by her story, Vittorio stays for the show, and the next one, and little by little, is ingratiated into the circus and the lives of its performers – all the while trying to discover the secret that led to Kate’s sudden departure.

“As transporting and graceful as a ride in a balloon...Ms. Birkin, though quiet and unassuming in the role, is also electrifying, carrying a hidden charge of emotion that circulates through nearly every scene.” (A.O. Scott, New York Times)

“Wonderful…Rivette shows Provençal villages full of luxuriant nature, rustic pleasures, and modern comforts and mores.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“An ephemeral eighty-five-minute daydream.” – S. James Snyder, Artforum

“Irresistibly charming.” – Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader

“An ambiguous and often lovely romance set in the world of a small circus.”– Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine

“So immediately satisfying as a comedy, that its philosophical mysteries emerge only on repeated viewings.” – Benjamin Strong, The L Magazine

“Deadpan, quiet, tender, sometimes aching with sadness, beautiful from start to finish.” – Rob White, Film Quarterly

* Official Selection, New York Film Festival *
* Official Selection, Venice Film Festival *