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A film whose opening scene is of a
Christmas sermon preached by an elderly priest, which contains lengthy
philosophical discussions about whether “Pascal’s wager” can be applied
to Marxism, and which is a subtitled French movie into the bargain, seems
an unlikely candidate for commercial success in the English-speaking world.
It would not be correct to put this success down to the come-on title My
Night with Maud (1969) (US title My Night at Maud’s), shortly
to be followed by the equally intriguingly titled Claire’s Knee
(1970). Ma Nuit chez Maud was Eric Rohmer’s breakthrough film, ensuring
for him a devoted and long-lasting following among a significant group
of discerning film-goers, who loved his witty dissection of young people’s
relationships.
Before adopting the name Eric Rohmer,
allegedly because he feared disapproval by his bourgeois
The popular image of a Rohmer film is of a “comedy of manners” about a small group of well-educated, bookish, upper-middle-class young people, often on holiday at the seaside, endlessly discussing their relationships but never doing very much. There is virtually no reference to social or political concerns, although one can infer that, unlike Godard for example, Rohmer holds to traditional conservative French values in both politics and morality. In truth his films are an attempt to transfer the form and concerns of the 19th century (and sometimes earlier) novel to the cinema. There are innumerable literary and philosophical references. He is concerned not with what his characters do, but with what is going through their minds as they do it (or, much more often, talk about it). Most of his films are semi-improvised, in the sense that he discusses the script with his actors before the dialogue is determined. All are low-budget, most are shot on location, and he has latterly used digital video; occasionally the sound of the whirring camera can be detected (Les Rendez-vous de Paris (1995), Conte de Printemps (1989)). As indicated by the filmography below, most of Rohmer’s films are in groups of four or six, loosely linked by a common theme. The “moral tales”, based on published stories written by Rohmer, are variations on the theme: A (a male) is committed to B, is attracted by C, but eventually rejects C in favour of B. The finest of the six, Ma Nuit chez Maud and Le Genou de Claire, illustrate this perfectly. The former, arguably the most accessible general introduction to the theology of Pascal, concerns a Catholic bachelor who spies a blonde girl in church and decides that she is the one for him. Subsequently, by a series of accidents he has to spend the night at the home of the beautiful Maud, a divorcée who is determined to seduce him. After much philosophical and theological discussion he declines the opportunity, and ends up marrying the blonde, though not without an ironic twist in the “five years later” final scene. The film is thoroughly entertaining, erotic, ravishing to look at, and more overtly concerned with religious themes than any other Rohmer offering. So authentic did Rohmer wish to be that, when his lead actor Jean-Louis Trintignant was unable to turn up for the shooting of the opening scene (Midnight Mass at a church in Clermont-Ferrand, Pascal’s birthplace), the director postponed the shoot to the following Christmas Eve! In Le Genou de Claire, an engaged man on holiday by Lac d’Annecy is tempted by the two daughters of an old flame, and in particular by the knee of one of them. Once he has touched it he can return to his intended. Two of Rohmer’s best films, Die
Marquise von O. . . (1976) and Percival (1978), can be regarded
as a kind of diptych between the “moral tales” and the “comedies and proverbs”.
Along with L’Anglaise et le Duc (2001) they are a venture into what
is popularly called “costume drama”, and are both based on literary works.
Die
Marquise von O. . . (the only time Rohmer appears on-screen, playing
a soldier) is a faithful adaptation of Kleist’s 1808 novella about a young
widow who discovers that she is inexplicably pregnant. Shot in German (though
the only version I have seen was dubbed into French), the film is a conscious
attempt to bring the period to life by creating the “look” of the romantic
painting of the time, by artists like Friedrich, Fuseli, and Fragonard.
Percival is even more remarkable, based on Chrétien de Troyes’
12th century epic poem of Arthurian legend. It is presented in the form
of a stage performance of that
With the six “comedies and proverbs” Rohmer returns to the tangled relationships of modern French youngsters; they tend to be centered on groups rather than on a single character. All are thoroughly enjoyable, but towering above the other five is Le Rayon vert (1986) (released in the US as Summer), considered by some to be the director’s most perfect film. Rohmer takes his improvisational methods to their peak, obtaining a stunning performance from the strikingly expressive Marie Rivière as the awkward twenty-something Delphine, who cannot fit in with anybody and keeps changing her holiday plans. Credited as “script collaborator”, Rivière, a Rohmer regular, goes through a twitching and grimacing routine worthy of a Method actor. And at the end there is one of Rohmer’s epiphanies, or small miracles, which (at least for the time being) puts everything to rights for Delphine. It is fairly evident that Delphine speaks for the director when she rejects the sexually promiscuous attitude of the Swedish girl she meets at Biarritz. The “four seasons” films show that,
in his 70s, Rohmer’s films were as thoroughly enjoyable and
Two late films hint at Rohmer’s political sympathies. In L’Arbre, le maire et la médiathèque (1993), part satire on bureaucracy, part documentary on traditional village life, a schoolteacher rages against proposals for a media centre which would obscure his view of an old tree; the film’s “message” is that while the city is fine, the countryside should be left alone. And in L’Anglaise et le Duc, which caused protests in France because it was seen as pro-Royalist, the memoirs of a British woman living in Paris at the time of the Revolution are brought vividly to life. Rohmer has his “stock company” of actors, generally complete unknowns outside his films. Béatrice Romand, Marie Rivière, and Fabrice Luchini have been followed from virtual (or actual) teenage to middle-age, while Pascale Ogier (charismatic star of Les Nuits de la pleine lune (1984)) would almost certainly have done so had it not been for her early death. Rohmer’s cinematography is generally stunning, largely due to the great Nestor Almendros who worked on many of his films. Rohmer’s films seldom make critics’ “ten best” lists, though they are generally admired among the critical fraternity. One leading British critic, Geoff Andrew, has referred to him as the world’s greatest living filmmaker (at a time when Robert Bresson was still living!). Influences on his films are not obvious: possibly Renoir, in his humanistic love of his characters, possibly Mankiewicz, in his great emphasis on dialogue. For a long-established director of his standing, surprisingly little has appeared in book form about his work, at least in English. For over 40 years Eric Rohmer has been
ploughing his very personal path, shunning the road to big commercial hits
(he has never been particularly popular in France), but regularly providing
a loyal band of followers with films which seem to be about not very much
but which are full of wit, charm, clever plots, and a delightful succession
of characters. To repeat, he has succeeded in keeping alive the virtues
of the classical novel into the cinema of the 21st century.
Filmography Presentation, ou Charlotte et son steak
(1950) (short)
SIX CONTES MORAUX (SIX MORAL TALES)
Nadja à Paris (1964) (short)
COMEDIES ET PROVERBES (COMEDIES AND
PROVERBS)
4 Aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle (Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle) (1986) CONTES DES QUATRES SAISONS (TALES OF
THE FOUR SEASONS)
L’Arbre, le maire et la médiathèque
(The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque) (1993)
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