Of the French New Wave directors of the 1960s (Godard, Truffaut, et al.) who came to filmmaking from film criticism, making the critic's eye the camera's eye, Jacques Rivette remains the least known and least shown. But Rivette is still making pictures that challenge our perception of cinema, life, and the intersection of the two. Rivette frequently uses the delights and mysteries of Paris itself as a stage for films about acting, role-playing, and discovery. As a cinephile whose presence at Cinémathèque Française screenings is almost as predictable as the projectionists'; as former editor of Cahiers du cinéma and the author of countless articles and interviews with American and European filmmakers, Rivette may know all there is to know about directorial control and mise-en-scène. His films are frequently about mysterious master plans, and haunted by the cryptic involvement of an invisible puppeteer. But as a working method, control “bore(s) me to tears,” he said. Rivette opens up the process of creation; as early as Céline and Julie Go Boating his cast members were creating their own characters and dialogue, and thus changing the game. You, the audience, complete the creative equation.