He moved to Paris to pursue his career, frequenting Henri Langlois' Cinémathèque Française and other ciné-clubs; there, he met François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and other future members of the New Wave.

Influenced by the political turmoil of May 68, improvisational theatre and an in-depth interview with filmmaker Jean Renoir, Rivette began working with large groups of actors on character development and allowing events to unfold on camera.

[11] At the Cinémathèque, Rivette, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Suzanne Schiffman, Gruault and Bouchet were immersed in films from the silent and early "talkie" eras that they were previously unfamiliar with.

[18] That year he made his second short film, Le Quadrille, produced by and starring Godard, who raised the money by stealing and selling his grandfather's collection of rare Paul Valéry first editions.

[19] When the film was screened at the Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin, Rivette recalled, "After ten minutes, people started to leave, and at the end, the only ones who stayed were Jean-Luc and a girl.

[22] Rivette, Godard, Truffaut and future cinematographer Charles Bitsch, arriving at the gala event in casual dress, were refused entrance by the doorman until Cocteau allowed them to enter.

[32] From 1954 to 1957, Cahiers du Cinéma published a series of interviews with noted film directors including Jacques Becker, Abel Gance, Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, Roberto Rossellini and Orson Welles.

Rivette was eager to make a film with Rossellini's help and met him along with co-writer Gruault to discuss the Cité Universitaire as a "melting pot of cultures and ideas" in Paris.

"[42] With borrowed equipment, a loan of ₣80,000 from Cahiers du Cinéma and short film-reel ends provided by Chabrol, the silent film was shot in the summer of 1958 and sound was added the following year.

[47] Pierre Marcabru of Combat said, "The connection between image and sound has never been so striking, evocative or necessary", and Jeander of Libération praised the film's depiction of "the moral and intellectual confusion of these young people who are repressed by their epoch for more than their elders".

The film was controversial before its completion; members of the Catholic Church in France began a letter-writing campaign in opposition, and pressurised Paris police commissioner Maurice Papon and Minister of Information Alain Peyrefitte to take action.

A "Manifesto of the 1,789" in support was signed by Jacques Prévert, Raymond Queneau, Marguerite Duras and several major French book publishers, and many Catholic priests and nuns denounced the ban's effect on freedom of speech.

With the Cahiers du Cinéma office as their headquarters, current and former staff members, including Rivette, Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer and Chabrol, began mass letter-writing and telephone campaigns to recruit support.

[77] The protests led to the creation of the Etats généraux du cinéma Francais, a committee of film-industry workers who wanted more freedom to make films and less control by the Centre national de la cinématographie.

[70] Invigorated by his new filmmaking technique, Rivette invited over forty actors (including Jean-Pierre Leaud, Juliet Berto, Michael Lonsdale and Bulle Ogier) to each develop a character for a new film without a plot or interaction with each other.

[87] Out 1 starred Jean-Pierre Leaud as Colin, a Parisian con artist who pretends to be a deaf-mute and begins receiving anonymous messages referring to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark and Honoré de Balzac's Histoire des Treize (The Thirteen).

They begin to visit a mysterious "House of Fiction" where the same melodrama (based on two short stories by Henry James) plays out every day, ending with the murder of a young girl by the enigmatic Sophie (Marie-France Pisier).

Le Pont du Nord starred Bulle and Pascale Ogier as two women who meet and investigate a strange Snakes and Ladders-like map of Paris and a mysterious man named Max.

Geraldine Chaplin and Jane Birkin star as members of a theatrical troupe who are invited to appear in a new play resembling the real life of its director (Kalfon) and the mysterious disappearance of his wife.

[113] Rivette received critical acclaim for his 1988 film La Bande des quatre (Gang of Four), about four drama students whose lives playfully alternate from theatre to real life and make-believe.

[126] Rivette's film policier, Top Secret (1998), featured Bonnaire as a young scientist whose brother (Grégoire Colin) convinces her that their father was killed by Walser (Jerzy Radziwilowicz) and seeks revenge.

"[129] Va savoir (2001) starred Jeanne Balibar and Sergio Castellitto as a couple caught up in romantic farce as they attempt to stage Luigi Pirandello's Come tu mi vuoi and search for a missing manuscript.

[96] The script for Marie et Julien had never been completed, and the footage from the three days of shooting was lost; Rivette worked from "cryptic notes" taken by his assistant, Claire Denis, which cinematographer William Lubtchansky had kept for decades.

[140] In 2009, Rivette made 36 vues du pic Saint-Loup; Jane Birkin starred as a woman who returns to her childhood circus troupe after her father dies, and begins a romance with a wealthy Italian drifter (Sergio Castellitto).

[144] Gruault described Rivette as "slight, dark-haired and [having] very lively dark eyes in an emaciated visage of a waxy pallor...add to that a forced, nervous smile of someone who has to make constant efforts to win acceptance by a society that he seemed to regard as irremediably hostile.

[5] Travis Mackenzie Hoover wrote that the documentary portrays Rivette with "lonerish tendencies" and as "a sort of transient with no home or country, wandering about or loitering in public space instead of staking out some personal terra firma.

They continued a professional relationship; Parolini collaborated with Rivette on L'amour fou, Duelle, Noroît and Love on the Ground as a co-writer, and she took photographs on the sets of The Nun and Celine and Julie Go Boating.

[3] Ever since Parmenides, and his duelbetween being and not-being, thegreatest minds have jabberedon and on about thisbrotherly squabble, wringing hands overSocrates' alphabet, in vain untilGoogle:power and glory,liberty and fraternity,peace and war,infinity and totality,penury and democracy,terror and virtue,poetry and truth,et cetera,I actually for a second wanted to addnature and metaphorto all this charivari,believing to grasp reality, like it's said by the pros and theamateurs of the profession,mixing shot and reverse-shot,but this evades onelast time all thosevanities, that the little boyfrom Rouen, having in the end taken backhis mind from his movie life,as a man simple and complicatedas he was, a match forhimself and justly proclaiming:secret and law — for the screendid not hide anything from anything.

— Jean-Luc Godard, in the interview "Le secret et la loi" in the March 2016 issue of Cahiers du Cinéma[162] Rivette died on 29 January 2016 from complications of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 87, in his home in Paris.

[173] Locarno Film Festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian wrote that Rivette "made the first and best attempt to transpose the ideas of André Bazin into critical writings" and praised such articles as "The Genius of Howard Hawks" and "Letter on Rossellini.