It is typical of Jacques Rivette's films that his characters choose to place themselves in situations whose outcome is unknown and for motives that are mixed and confused. Since Rivette's films are literally composed as they are being filmed, the situation of the actors mirrors the situation of the characters while the situation of the film mirrors the situation of the action that takes place within it. The actors are complicit in composing the roles that they play as are the characters in the fiction. Similarly, the film seems to be seeking itself as it is being made and goes along. Once Marianne becomes Frenhofer's model and he begins to sketch and then paint La Belle noiseuse, both are set on a course to discover things about themselves and about each other by means of their situation, similar to the situation of the film.