How ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ was inspired by ‘Celine and Julie Go Boating’

Celine And Julie Go Boating

Seidelman and Rivette: BFFs.

Ladies going on adventures in the city isn’t an inherently innovative plot. Wacky run-ins and the meshing of the uptight with the absurd are some of the small delights embraced by dozens of films. But Celine and Julie Go Boating and Desperately Seeking Susan are too similar to ignore their shared cinematic DNA.

The BFI’s video essay explains how Rivette’s masterpiece inspired the ‘80s favorite, their homage to Alice in Wonderland, and their magic (literal and figurative).

Brief yet beautiful, the essay celebrates friendship as deeply as the two films, which continue to inspire female group comedies to this day. Girls Trip, a raunchy, goofy adventure that embraces similar character relationships, owes as much to these two films for continuing a movie tradition as it does to its modern script and zany acting.

Jacob Oller: Jacob Oller writes everywhere (Vanity Fair, The Guardian, Playboy, FSR, Paste, etc.) about everything that matters (film, TV, video games, memes, life).