Jacques RivetteJacques Rivette is perhaps the best kept secret of French cinema. A founding figure in the New Wave, and at the centre of the *Cahiers du cinma* team, he developed into one of the most unusual and adventurous French directors of the last sixty years, yet his work remains little known in comparison with his contemporaries, and this study is the first in English to look at the full span of his career. Starting with his decisively influential film