Duelle (1976) review

Queen of the Night Leni (Juliet Berto) is wandering around Paris trying to find a "friend" named Max Christie and asks hotel porter Lucie (Hermine Karagheuz) to help out - elsewhere, Queen of the Sun Viva (Bulle Ogier) is being a menace and searching for a magical stone called "The Fairy Godmother" that's been missing for over two centuries.  The beginning is promising with all of these ladies looking pretty and mysterious ... but then it becomes clear that it's Rivette back in Out 1 Mode, where he's simply making it up as it goes along (and isn't sure where he wants to take it).  I'm always willing to go for a experimental ride, but when it's three quarters of the way through and it still feels rather frivolously mapped out, that's not ideal.  Perhaps the auteur was well aware of this, which is why he has one of his characters say the following as a form of auto-critique: "I don't understand anything.  Your explanation doesn't make sense."