Va Savoir (Who Knows?) (2001)

Image credit: Va Savoir: Moune Jamet

WINDOW TO THE SOUL Balibar opens herself to love in ''Va Savoir''

Jacques Rivette, one of the founders of the French new wave, distills 73 years of wisdom about life and movies into his enchanting romantic comedy Va Savoir (Who Knows?). And he answers the wry, boulevardier question of his title in every frame: Rivette knows. The director of ''Céline'' and ''Julie Go Boating'' understands how inexplicable men and women can be in love and sex, and how life is a kind of performance, the borders between reality and illusion smudged.

As he's done before, Rivette sets ''Va Savoir'' in a theater -- this one features an Italian troupe in Paris, where Camille (Jeanne Balibar), an actress whose current boyfriend, Ugo (Sergio Castellitto), is the company director, runs into her former lover, Pierre (Jacques Bonnaffé). Unresolved feelings shake loose; soon, the interlocking players include Pierre's wife, Pierre's wife's lover, Pierre's wife's lover's half-sister, and Pierre's wife's lover's half-sister's mother. It's all very French, very intricate, and -- this is Rivette's magic -- seemingly as light as air.