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Eric Rohmer
Few filmmakers have taken the principle of the ‘talking picture’ so far as Eric Rohmer, the internationally reknowned director of the Moral Tales, Comedies and Proverbs, and Tales of the Four Seasons cycles. Occasionally dismissed as precious or overly literary, Rohmer’s features may leave the impression that there is more to listen to than to look at. Yet as the secretive director (b. Maurice Schérer in 1920) points out, dialogue is no less engaging than the best gunfights, and if his characters prefer discussing love to making it, they are no less the ‘heroes’ of the stories they tell.
Charges of political conservatism aside, the author of My Night at Maud’s, Summer and such period films as Perceval and the all-digital The Lady and the Duke emerges - like Hitchcock before him - as a singular inventor of cinematic forms. This critical overview, which contains an extensive bibliography and a filmography, will appeal to students of Film Studies, French Studies, and enthusiasts.
Charges of political conservatism aside, the author of My Night at Maud’s, Summer and such period films as Perceval and the all-digital The Lady and the Duke emerges - like Hitchcock before him - as a singular inventor of cinematic forms. This critical overview, which contains an extensive bibliography and a filmography, will appeal to students of Film Studies, French Studies, and enthusiasts.
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2007
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March 11, 2018
MY ROHMERATHON
What a great time to be a fan of this unique director. Here is your complete kit:
1. The new giant biography (can be hard work but well worth it)
2. This neat little critical book which you can keep in your jacket pocket for idle moments at bus stops, in supermarket queues, or during the straphanging daily commute.
3. The dvd set “Six Moral Tales”
4. The dvd set “The Eric Rohmer Collection” which has the Comedies and Proverbs series.
5. The dvd set “Tales of the Four Seasons”
6. The dvd set “The Essential Eric Rohmer” which collects four more films not in the above 3 sets – thank you for that!
7. One extra dvd not in any of the above, “The Lady and the Duke”.
If you get all these items you are set for your Rohmerathon! Bliss will result!
I do admit that I can see why some people would throw themselves out of an upstairs window to avoid watching a Rohmer film, but I think he's great. Henry James would have loved him. If you love Henry James you will love him! He is like Henry James in France with bikinis!
In his movies mostly young rather good looking people sit around and drone on and on, always about themselves and their awkward lives and ridiculous over-elaborate emotions, with their slightly sympathetic but increasingly irritated friends. Then fate takes a hand and it gets even more cringe-making. Ha! Does movie watching get any better than that?!
This is a lot closer to life than Harry Potter and the Earwig of Despair, The Human Centipede or I Saw What You Did Through This Hole I Drilled In Your Wall, Last Week, And the Week Before That, Part Two.
Who wants movies that are like life though? You get enough of that already in your actual life. But somehow, these charming or gawky men and women in Rohmer movies are more affecting than ten melodramas with orgasms and fireworks. Here's my nuits chez Eric so far :
1959: The Sign of Leo. This was Eric’s first feature but it never got shown anywhere and sank like a stone. I can see why – for 50 minutes it’s just an American in Paris who’s been reduced to being a destitute bum and he’s wandering around Paris getting more and more desperate. It’s no fun and nothing like the movies that came later. So it goes to show you can start badly but still have a wonderful career. Score: 4/10
1963 : The Girl at the Monceau Bakery. This is just a mean spirited short tale of a guy who decides to go out with a girl who works in his regular bakery (how he doesn’t get fat eating all those pastries every day I do not know) whilst really wanting to go out with a different girl he can’t seem to locate anywhere. As soon as he does, though, the poor bakery girl is toast. Ha ha! Score: 5/10
1963 : Suzanne’s Career – another short about two guys messing with a poor girl but this time she ends up okay. We begin to see that these Six Moral Takes Eric begins his own career with are about male self-deception. Score: 5/10
1967 : La Collectionneuse - at first this movie leches all over the youthful form of Haydee Politoff
- there's about five minutes of Haydee Politoff sauntering along a beach in a very skimpy bikini, and the camera examines every curve, the drool is running all down the cinema screen. Then these two older guys do some full-on leching too, they're all on a casual friends-of-friends type holiday in a big secluded Biarritz house, like you do. And it looks like they're just nastily squishing her around in their suauve debonair men of the world type way, but of course, it turns out she's tough as nails and she is unsquishable. This movie is worth seeing for these guys' haircuts. Score: 8/10
1969 My Night with Maud - in which a guy does not have sex with this nice lady who pretty much asks him to. There is a long conversation between a religious guy and a Marxist professor where they talk about pascal’s wager. Score : 7/10
1970 Claire's Knee - in which a guy who's about to be married and who is in his late 30s gets all fascinated by these two lovely young girls who are 15 and 17, so really inappropriate. A creepy film from today’s perspective, but very beautiful. Score: 7/10
1972 Love in the Afternoon : in which a married guy starts seeing an old female friend of his but doesn't have sex with her. A must see for all married men. Score 9/10
1976 The Marquise of O. Complete departure – a German novel from 1808 about a noblewoman who gets raped whilst asleep and therefore doesn’t know why she is pregnant. Pretty odd stuff; rather wooden. Score: 6/10
1978 – Perceval. Not available in the UK and I’m very glad about that. Some kind of medieval extravaganza. Everyone hated it. One of the 2 Rohmer movies to lose money.
1981 The Aviator's Wife - in which a guy gets all confused because he thinks his girlfriend is sleeping with her prevous boyfriend, which she isn't, but she sort of wants to, I think. Rohmer is the master of tepid attraction. Also - this movie is basically three very long conversations. Also - this movie features a breathtaking performance by a very young actress playing a French version of a manic dream pixie girl and after this she just wandered off and didn't have much of an actress career at all. That's like scoring a number one hit with your first record then thinking okay, done that. Score 10/10 - sheer genius.
(yes, she actually says that)
1982 A Good Marriage - in which a young woman bores everyone to distraction and decides that a particular attractive lawyer will make her a great husband but he doesn’t think so. Ouch! Score 7/10.
1983 Pauline at the Beach - as close as Rohmer gets to Benny Hill, which isn't all that close. A young girl and an older woman actually do get to have sex with a couple of guys. Return of the bikinis. Score : 8/10
1984 Full Moon in Paris - in which a young woman wants the freedom of a flat in Paris as well as living with her boyfriend in the suburbs and it doesn't quite work out. Score 7/10.
1986 The Green Ray - in which a young woman's holiday plans fall through and she wanders around aimlessly and doesn't get to have any fun. Score : 7/10
1987 My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (not to be confused with My Girlfriend's Boyfriend)- in which a dowdy, boring young woman makes friends with a much more attractive woman and basically just steals her boyfriend, but it's okay, no one even has an argument. Score : 8/10.
1987 : Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle. Not available in the UK. Everybody hated this one!
1990 : A Tale of Springtime - in which a sharp young woman makes friends with a younger one and finds out she wants to get rid of her dad's girlfriend and substitute herself - awkward or what? These two are really pretty aggravating though. Score: 4/10
1992 : A Tale of Winter - woman has fan holiday romance and makes plans to meet up with the guy but gives him the wrong address, she’s sort of a bit dyslexic. Complications ensue. Score: 7/10
1993 : The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque. Also not available in the UK and with a title like that I’m not disappointed.
1995 : Rendezvous in Paris - three short stories - in the last one we see a painter in his studio making dabs on his latest canvas and standing back and looking at the dabs for a minute or so - this is a nice joke for Rohmer fans, because it is famously said that watching Rohmer films is like watching paint dry. Ha ha, good one, Eric. We are actually watching paint dry in this movie. Anyway, the first of the 30 minute tales in here is brilliant - two young Parisian women at their most charming and self-deluded, and two charming Parisian men at their most handsome and most lizardliness. See the first story, skip the other two. 9/10 for that one, 6/10 and 4/10 for the other two.
1996 : A Tale of Summer : a handsome young guy gets himself in a predicament with three girls at the same time. Okay, I did want to nail this guy's head to his guitar; but the plausible ridiculousness of the situation was funny. Score: 7/10.
(Wanna bet?)
1998 : A Tale of Autumn - 60 minutes of increasingly tiresome set-up (literally, two women are setting up different guys for their lonesome middle aged winegrowing friend to meet) and 40 minutes of great payoff. This was like being firstly irritated and ultimately charmed in the same way Magali in the movie is. The two main women here were in Rohmer movies 20 years previously. It's great to see them again. Score: 7/10
2001 The Lady and the Duke. At age 80 Rohmer was still going strong. This is a French Revolution tale of an Englishwoman trying to find her way through the chaos. All quite straightforward but filmed with a weird early CGI technique. Lovely central performance. Score: 6/10.
2004 – Triple Agent. In the 1930s/40s a White Russian in Paris gets more and more entangled in spy crosses and doublecrosses. Really rather a drag. Score: 4/10.
2007 – The Romance of Astrea and Celadon. Very sorry way to end a brilliant Rohmerathon – this was another hunk of whimsical medieval flummery and I could not take it. Score: in honesty 0/10
But heck, that was 22 movies and only 3 duds.
What a great time to be a fan of this unique director. Here is your complete kit:
1. The new giant biography (can be hard work but well worth it)
2. This neat little critical book which you can keep in your jacket pocket for idle moments at bus stops, in supermarket queues, or during the straphanging daily commute.
3. The dvd set “Six Moral Tales”
4. The dvd set “The Eric Rohmer Collection” which has the Comedies and Proverbs series.
5. The dvd set “Tales of the Four Seasons”
6. The dvd set “The Essential Eric Rohmer” which collects four more films not in the above 3 sets – thank you for that!
7. One extra dvd not in any of the above, “The Lady and the Duke”.
If you get all these items you are set for your Rohmerathon! Bliss will result!
I do admit that I can see why some people would throw themselves out of an upstairs window to avoid watching a Rohmer film, but I think he's great. Henry James would have loved him. If you love Henry James you will love him! He is like Henry James in France with bikinis!
In his movies mostly young rather good looking people sit around and drone on and on, always about themselves and their awkward lives and ridiculous over-elaborate emotions, with their slightly sympathetic but increasingly irritated friends. Then fate takes a hand and it gets even more cringe-making. Ha! Does movie watching get any better than that?!
This is a lot closer to life than Harry Potter and the Earwig of Despair, The Human Centipede or I Saw What You Did Through This Hole I Drilled In Your Wall, Last Week, And the Week Before That, Part Two.
Who wants movies that are like life though? You get enough of that already in your actual life. But somehow, these charming or gawky men and women in Rohmer movies are more affecting than ten melodramas with orgasms and fireworks. Here's my nuits chez Eric so far :
1959: The Sign of Leo. This was Eric’s first feature but it never got shown anywhere and sank like a stone. I can see why – for 50 minutes it’s just an American in Paris who’s been reduced to being a destitute bum and he’s wandering around Paris getting more and more desperate. It’s no fun and nothing like the movies that came later. So it goes to show you can start badly but still have a wonderful career. Score: 4/10
1963 : The Girl at the Monceau Bakery. This is just a mean spirited short tale of a guy who decides to go out with a girl who works in his regular bakery (how he doesn’t get fat eating all those pastries every day I do not know) whilst really wanting to go out with a different girl he can’t seem to locate anywhere. As soon as he does, though, the poor bakery girl is toast. Ha ha! Score: 5/10
1963 : Suzanne’s Career – another short about two guys messing with a poor girl but this time she ends up okay. We begin to see that these Six Moral Takes Eric begins his own career with are about male self-deception. Score: 5/10
1967 : La Collectionneuse - at first this movie leches all over the youthful form of Haydee Politoff
- there's about five minutes of Haydee Politoff sauntering along a beach in a very skimpy bikini, and the camera examines every curve, the drool is running all down the cinema screen. Then these two older guys do some full-on leching too, they're all on a casual friends-of-friends type holiday in a big secluded Biarritz house, like you do. And it looks like they're just nastily squishing her around in their suauve debonair men of the world type way, but of course, it turns out she's tough as nails and she is unsquishable. This movie is worth seeing for these guys' haircuts. Score: 8/10
1969 My Night with Maud - in which a guy does not have sex with this nice lady who pretty much asks him to. There is a long conversation between a religious guy and a Marxist professor where they talk about pascal’s wager. Score : 7/10
1970 Claire's Knee - in which a guy who's about to be married and who is in his late 30s gets all fascinated by these two lovely young girls who are 15 and 17, so really inappropriate. A creepy film from today’s perspective, but very beautiful. Score: 7/10
1972 Love in the Afternoon : in which a married guy starts seeing an old female friend of his but doesn't have sex with her. A must see for all married men. Score 9/10
1976 The Marquise of O. Complete departure – a German novel from 1808 about a noblewoman who gets raped whilst asleep and therefore doesn’t know why she is pregnant. Pretty odd stuff; rather wooden. Score: 6/10
1978 – Perceval. Not available in the UK and I’m very glad about that. Some kind of medieval extravaganza. Everyone hated it. One of the 2 Rohmer movies to lose money.
1981 The Aviator's Wife - in which a guy gets all confused because he thinks his girlfriend is sleeping with her prevous boyfriend, which she isn't, but she sort of wants to, I think. Rohmer is the master of tepid attraction. Also - this movie is basically three very long conversations. Also - this movie features a breathtaking performance by a very young actress playing a French version of a manic dream pixie girl and after this she just wandered off and didn't have much of an actress career at all. That's like scoring a number one hit with your first record then thinking okay, done that. Score 10/10 - sheer genius.
(yes, she actually says that)
1982 A Good Marriage - in which a young woman bores everyone to distraction and decides that a particular attractive lawyer will make her a great husband but he doesn’t think so. Ouch! Score 7/10.
1983 Pauline at the Beach - as close as Rohmer gets to Benny Hill, which isn't all that close. A young girl and an older woman actually do get to have sex with a couple of guys. Return of the bikinis. Score : 8/10
1984 Full Moon in Paris - in which a young woman wants the freedom of a flat in Paris as well as living with her boyfriend in the suburbs and it doesn't quite work out. Score 7/10.
1986 The Green Ray - in which a young woman's holiday plans fall through and she wanders around aimlessly and doesn't get to have any fun. Score : 7/10
1987 My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (not to be confused with My Girlfriend's Boyfriend)- in which a dowdy, boring young woman makes friends with a much more attractive woman and basically just steals her boyfriend, but it's okay, no one even has an argument. Score : 8/10.
1987 : Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle. Not available in the UK. Everybody hated this one!
1990 : A Tale of Springtime - in which a sharp young woman makes friends with a younger one and finds out she wants to get rid of her dad's girlfriend and substitute herself - awkward or what? These two are really pretty aggravating though. Score: 4/10
1992 : A Tale of Winter - woman has fan holiday romance and makes plans to meet up with the guy but gives him the wrong address, she’s sort of a bit dyslexic. Complications ensue. Score: 7/10
1993 : The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque. Also not available in the UK and with a title like that I’m not disappointed.
1995 : Rendezvous in Paris - three short stories - in the last one we see a painter in his studio making dabs on his latest canvas and standing back and looking at the dabs for a minute or so - this is a nice joke for Rohmer fans, because it is famously said that watching Rohmer films is like watching paint dry. Ha ha, good one, Eric. We are actually watching paint dry in this movie. Anyway, the first of the 30 minute tales in here is brilliant - two young Parisian women at their most charming and self-deluded, and two charming Parisian men at their most handsome and most lizardliness. See the first story, skip the other two. 9/10 for that one, 6/10 and 4/10 for the other two.
1996 : A Tale of Summer : a handsome young guy gets himself in a predicament with three girls at the same time. Okay, I did want to nail this guy's head to his guitar; but the plausible ridiculousness of the situation was funny. Score: 7/10.
(Wanna bet?)
1998 : A Tale of Autumn - 60 minutes of increasingly tiresome set-up (literally, two women are setting up different guys for their lonesome middle aged winegrowing friend to meet) and 40 minutes of great payoff. This was like being firstly irritated and ultimately charmed in the same way Magali in the movie is. The two main women here were in Rohmer movies 20 years previously. It's great to see them again. Score: 7/10
2001 The Lady and the Duke. At age 80 Rohmer was still going strong. This is a French Revolution tale of an Englishwoman trying to find her way through the chaos. All quite straightforward but filmed with a weird early CGI technique. Lovely central performance. Score: 6/10.
2004 – Triple Agent. In the 1930s/40s a White Russian in Paris gets more and more entangled in spy crosses and doublecrosses. Really rather a drag. Score: 4/10.
2007 – The Romance of Astrea and Celadon. Very sorry way to end a brilliant Rohmerathon – this was another hunk of whimsical medieval flummery and I could not take it. Score: in honesty 0/10
But heck, that was 22 movies and only 3 duds.
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