Eric Rohmer: C/D

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I've now finished watching my Rohmer boxset, Six Moral Tales, and I've grown completely obsessed by these films...
Something about the dialogues, the focus on moral decisions and the prevailing idea that people CAN make choices, that the possibilities are endless, etc., make this kind of cinema more relevant and more life-affirming than anything else.
How could this be considered boring?

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Monday, 19 January 2004 10:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Visually he is quite 'low-key,' shall we say. Do you speak French? I reckon I'd like them more if I did. Also, d00d, this is a great example of popular Catholicism in late 20th Century French culture!!

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 19 January 2004 10:29 (twenty-two years ago)

True, they are still out there! ALthough, the popular image of Rohmer as a conservative devout catholic is pretty exaggerated. I don't recall any of his characters ever discussing religion or justifying his choices in a religious way.
And yes, I think understanding French might be key, as his dialogues are amazing in their literary elegance and rigor. Hence, the common criticism that these are artificial, 'unrealistic', but I guess you wouldn't criticize a book for being too litterary, so..

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Monday, 19 January 2004 10:36 (twenty-two years ago)

oh he is great

he is more classical than the classical directors...a cinema of utmost restraint, almost invisible (except when it's not, as in perceval and his last film).

a conservatism to be admired and grappled with as well.

his films of the 80s are my favorite. esp. the aviator's wife.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 19 January 2004 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

:-(

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 19 January 2004 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

I love him.

I should say more.

― cozen (Cozen), Monday, 31 May 2004 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Nah,I saw a Rohmer film once. It was like watching paint dry.

― gene hackman, Monday, 31 May 2004 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

pauline à la plage is my fave of the box set comédies et proverbes which i have just finished watching. not only is the actress playing pauline amazingly natural and direct. she is the youngest but she knows more about love than all the others in the film. she isn't grown up yet but isn't a child neither. maybe that gives her so much power and intuition. she doesn't think about her actions, she just is herself. le rayon vert and les nuits de la pleine nuit are great too. his dialogues are really simple but they nail it.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 31 May 2004 11:55 (twenty-two years ago)

not only is the actress playing pauline amazingly natural and direct. she is the youngest but she knows more about love than all the others in the film. she isn't grown up yet but isn't a child neither. maybe that gives her so much power and intuition. she doesn't think about her actions, she just is herself.

And why is 'the adolescent is the most natural among us' either interesting or realistic?

It's the only Rohmer film I've seen, and I found it worthwhile the first time around, but the second time around I realized I don't have much need for Nestor Almendros or French-people-being-more-ruminative-than-Americans-shocker when the characters are cartoons.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 31 May 2004 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

it's all about the charm, gabbneb. about some inexplicable mysterious power. either it grabs you or it doesn't. maybe it's a bad idea to analyse pauline. most characters in the movie are cartoons, you are right. but at the same time they have something tragic. like pauline's elder cousin. up till the end she doesn't get that the guy she is with is a womanizer. blinded by love.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Monday, 31 May 2004 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)

what charm? anything that has to be defended by reference to the 'inexplicable' isn't going to cut it with me. obviously, i get the 'blinded by love' part, though i consider her neither blind nor in love. and there's nothing tragic in a light comedy where everyone talks out their positioning together at the end, in mostly mild terms.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 31 May 2004 13:19 (twenty-two years ago)

see the marquise of o... or perceval....

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 31 May 2004 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

'Rendez-vous a Paris' is smashing. his latest, however ('Triple Agent') is turd.

― Will McKenzie, Monday, 31 May 2004 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

i liked it.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 June 2004 01:06 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

"why do you talk?"

― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 25 September 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I am largely ignorant of Rohmer, as I am of Bresson. I need more time!

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 25 September 2004 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

If only I could watch the classics of European cinema while at work instead of posting to ILX so much.

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 25 September 2004 20:49 (twenty-one years ago)

we could act them out for you!!

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 25 September 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

*looks at claire's knee*

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 25 September 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahaha! Berlin Alexanderplatz, please!

― adam. (nordicskilla), Saturday, 25 September 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

*stands still w.foopball on head*

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 25 September 2004 21:05 (twenty-one years ago)

And why is 'the adolescent is the most natural among us' either interesting or realistic?

My memory of Pauline a la plage is clouded, but maybe instead of an appeal to naturalness, it could be an indictment, an acknowledgment, of artifice in love, even romantic love, which is supposed to be natural.

La carriere de Suzanne reminds me of the album Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. Something about the shirt collars and books on mantelpieces.

― youn, Sunday, 26 September 2004 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

there's nothing tragic in a light comedy where everyone talks out their positioning together at the end, in mostly mild terms.

Again, my memory is clouded, but as i remember it, there is some tension between love and value that is tragic just as much as vanity is tragic. What does it mean to "love in vain"?

― youn, Sunday, 26 September 2004 03:39 (twenty-one years ago)

rohmer is really weird. he has a strange way of recording live sound and shooting with a largely stationery camera that give his films (some of them) a feeling of filmed theater (plus he is totally unafraid of having characters provide exposition via dialogue and other such "stagy" manoeuvers which are out of fashion), at first they can seem almost inept. also his weird verbose intertitles announcing new parts of the story, and the extremely tidy endings.

he's amazing, but really hard to get a handle on i find. i admire the purified/contrarian aspects of his aesthetic but sometimes i find the reasoning/ideas behind that aesthetic sort of suspect.

i saw a zillion rohmer films earlier this year as part of a complete retro at the cinematheque francaise. i think my favorite is "marquise d'o," although it's very very weird and discomforting.

and yeah, i really liked his new one, although i never go gaga over a rohmer film, i always leave kind of puzzled. his films are so ... clinical...or how do i put it? so...unruffled.... i'm not sensitive enough yet to his sensibility for them to really effect me emotionally.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 26 September 2004 03:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i dislike the whole "oooh rohmer he is so french with all the talking and the loving and the talking" because it obscures/glosses over the fact that eric rohmer's film are just totally fucking weird a lot of the time

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 26 September 2004 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I would have said he was the opposite of french, in respect of that, the talking thing.

― cºzen (Cozen), Sunday, 26 September 2004 07:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I have not seen a single Rohmer film (yet). I really should (along with Bresson, as noted above). Actually, I have seen one Bresson (Lancelot du lac), which I hated at the time, but it still sticks with me?

Oh...am I in love and don't know it? < / emo>

― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 26 September 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

The conflicts regarding women's roles are so understated in L'Amour l'apres midi that I didn't think much about them until now: his preference for attractive secretaries; the fact that his wife is working on her dissertation, pregnant; also, distinct experiences of freedom and safety and domesticity. Choosing a shirt for oneself. Couples make decisions about small things together.

― youn, Friday, 22 October 2004 04:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I just picked up the '6 Contes moraux' book, which is the novelisation of the 6 movies by Rohmer himself. I'm intrigued.

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Friday, 22 October 2004 07:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I say C, based on not very much.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 22 October 2004 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

oh my god, anne-laure meury is so hot in la femme de l'aviateur. but she's supposed to be 15. i feel deep shame.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

wait, hold on, that's not deep shame at all. thats--

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

this is the only picture of her i could find, it doesn't really do her justice:

http://mapage.noos.fr/e.rohmer/images/anne%20laure%20meury.jpg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean the whole point of the character is to be seductive, but she's startingly effective, especially when she starts playing with her bead necklace

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:44 (twenty-one years ago)

startLingly

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:44 (twenty-one years ago)

or when she gives françois a high five, that's awesome

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

she makes a lot of eye contact, i think in real life she would scare me

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:49 (twenty-one years ago)

i still am not sure what i think of rohmer...

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 01:51 (twenty-one years ago)

He's a classic, like you said up top. I'd write more but I gotta pack.

― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 23 December 2004 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Cur-lassic!

― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 23 December 2004 10:32 (twenty-one years ago)

watched 'triple agent' a cpl of weeks ago - and 'summer's tale' shown on BBC4 recently...the whole thing is tidy, a timeline is followed (does this plotting happen in all of his movies?). Its all v stage-y and v straight and v dry, he'sinto that...there's no dramatic energy to push the story along but he somehow involves you with dialogue, but making sure there's no emotional investment (esp in 'triple agent')...you expect a lot more to happen than it does.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 23 December 2004 11:31 (twenty-one years ago)

'tidy' - this is true.

I liked that thing with people walking about in paintings.

Or was that somebody else?

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 23 December 2004 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

you thinkin' of "lady and the duke"?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 23 December 2004 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

It was called 'The Englishwoman and the Duke', I think, although she was Scottish. I assume it's the same one.

― Puddin'Head Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 24 December 2004 11:43 (twenty-one years ago)

it was called "lady and the duke" in the usa, and "l'anglaise et le duc" in france.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 24 December 2004 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Somehow that reminds me of the Truffaut movie known as "Two English Girls" in English or "Les deux anglaises et le continent" in French. In this case "anglaises" is fully translated but they had to chop off the rest of the title to fit it in.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 24 December 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

anne-laure meury :

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005N9GF.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 30 December 2004 21:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never seen a Rohmer film, where should I start?

― .adam (nordicskilla), Thursday, 30 December 2004 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

La Carriere de Suzanne. But where did you get your name: Tous les garcons s'appellent...? (I think Rohmer and Godard made that together.)

― youn, Friday, 31 December 2004 00:38 (twenty-one years ago)

amst/youn，have you seen jean eustache's "la maman et la putain"?

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 31 December 2004 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 208 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

although it's maybe closer to Linklater's Before trilogy?

Keep Rohmer far away from that shit.

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 10 December 2018 19:14 (seven years ago)

oooooooooooh!!

― flappy bird, Monday, 10 December 2018 19:16 (seven years ago)

two months pass...

OK, The Bakery Girl of Monceau really pulled me in. I rented Suzanne's Career and My Night at Maud's today, excited to go through them + IV & VI + eventually revisit Claire's Knee.

― flappy bird, Monday, 18 February 2019 05:30 (seven years ago)

eleven months pass...

I finally saw The Green Ray 💚

― flappy bird, Thursday, 30 January 2020 05:09 (six years ago)

The movie or the phenomenon?

― nickn, Thursday, 30 January 2020 05:14 (six years ago)

💚

it's on the criterion channel, I'm planning on watching it

― Dan S, Thursday, 30 January 2020 05:15 (six years ago)

the movie 😔

― flappy bird, Thursday, 30 January 2020 05:22 (six years ago)

Green Ray's wonderful. Love the story about how they had to wait a whole year to get the titular image on film because it didn't happen the year they were actually filming.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 30 January 2020 06:30 (six years ago)

one month passes...

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/watch-the-films-of-eric-rohmer-on-his-centenary

― johnny crunch, Friday, 20 March 2020 23:23 (six years ago)

eleven months pass...

Eric Rohmer's TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS - new restorations coming soon! pic.twitter.com/BEluXXmx4x
— Janus Films (@janusfilms) February 26, 2021

― flappy bird, Friday, 26 February 2021 19:09 (five years ago)

at last -- I've wanted to watch Autumn Tale again for two decades.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 26 February 2021 19:23 (five years ago)

Rohmer series running on MUBI right now. Did anyone read the bio? Reviews made it seem interesting.

― The Ballad of Mel Cooley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 26 February 2021 19:32 (five years ago)

I've read a biography, not sure if there's more than one? His life isn't really that interesting tbh!

― Punk's not daft (Tom D.), Friday, 26 February 2021 19:58 (five years ago)

one month passes...

Worth the wait!.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 April 2021 04:30 (five years ago)

one year passes...

autumn tale is on mubi uk right now

― mark s, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 18:24 (three years ago)

I like A Summer's Tale even more

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 19:09 (three years ago)

ok but it isn't on mubi

― mark s, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 19:15 (three years ago)

but it is!
https://mubi.com/films/a-summers-tale

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 19:42 (three years ago)

Mubi has 5 Rohmer's (The 4 Seasons Tales + LA COLLECTIONNEUSE which is great.)

BFI has 7 https://player.bfi.org.uk/search/subscription?q=rohmer&availability=1

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 19:45 (three years ago)

^not in the US :(

― Rated “Blecchs” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:08 (three years ago)

For either. HBO Max has a few though.

― Rated “Blecchs” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:09 (three years ago)

MUBI US often doesn’t have a lot of stuff you guys have and for the other we get some kind of subset, BFI Player Classics.

― Rated “Blecchs” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:18 (three years ago)

Mark is in the UK though. He didn't move thar far afaik!

James Redd - You guys get the Criterion channel though and I bet Mubi US has lots of great stuff we don't get.

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:24 (three years ago)

summer's tale is on amazon prime mubi uk but not on o/g mubi

― mark s, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:30 (three years ago)

I just linked to it on the real mubi uk!

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:33 (three years ago)

o/g mubi is 29-films-in-29-days mubi

― mark s, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:37 (three years ago)

Wait you guys don’t get Criterion?

Does that version of o/g MUBI still exist?

― Rated “Blecchs” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:42 (three years ago)

Criterion Rohmer selection okay at the moment. MUBI US has an interesting Maurice Pialat series going on right now.

― Rated “Blecchs” (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:45 (three years ago)

it exists on my phone

the other bits are on my phone with it but i DISDANE them

― mark s, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:49 (three years ago)

Wait you guys don’t get Criterion?

Nope.

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:52 (three years ago)

If you use a VPN, get a new email address and take out a trial using a debit card, you can use it for a fortnight until it works out your card is not in the US.

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:54 (three years ago)

or so I heard.... (it worked last year)

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 20:55 (three years ago)

or you can Venmo me your money and I'll see about getting you access.

― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 21:10 (three years ago)

(Youth and age make one vulnerable (from naivete or nostalgia). This is incurred as life experience and observed with pathos held in reserve and without intrusion or judgment, not sardonically or cruelly and if familiar not overly so but with fondness and keenness for experience.)

― youn, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 21:38 (three years ago)

I don't have the services mentioned, but I have these films on DVD.

FWIW I quite like these seasonal tales and I think I enjoy Summer best.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 21:43 (three years ago)

I have them on dvd too

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 22:28 (three years ago)

I don't subscribe, but I noticed that Metrograph's streaming service ($5/month or $50/year) has three Rohmer films: "The Aviator's Wife," "Boyfriends and Girlfriends," and "Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle." It sounds like you can cancel your membership anytime, so you could just watch all their streaming stuff for one month for $5. Pretty interesting selection: https://metrograph.com/at-home/

― ernestp, Thursday, 6 October 2022 00:50 (three years ago)

"Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle." is my fave Rohmer. Indeed, one of my fave films by anybody.

― Toshirō Nofune (The Seventh ILXorai), Thursday, 6 October 2022 02:02 (three years ago)

five months pass...

Tales of the Four Seasons streaming on Criterion Channel.

god I love Melvil Poupaud.

― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 April 2023 16:21 (three years ago)

If my favourite Rohmer isn't La Collectioneuse, it's one of the medieval films. The appeal of the rest escapes me, it's pleasant at best.

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 5 April 2023 00:08 (three years ago)

Could never get into the costumed ones at all (except maybe Triple Agent). They seemed to miss the point of what made his films great - eg the minute dissection of every fray micro-dramas

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 07:37 (three years ago)

The Lady and the Duke has more tension than his other films.

― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 April 2023 09:19 (three years ago)

seven months pass...

https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/7154-eric-rohmers-tales-of-the-four-seasons

― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 17:44 (two years ago)

one month passes...

Love the bit in "Le Rayon Vert" where Delphine walks by a group of people discussing Jules Verne and decides to eavesdrop on them - because she heard the word "green" mentioned, I assume. It's absolutely vital to the film but it's done in such a casual way, the conversation is so natural, the people are plainly not actors. Then having the one old guy there get up and mansplain the physics of the green ray is just perfect.

― Little Billy Love (Tom D.), Monday, 8 January 2024 22:36 (two years ago)

one year passes...

New Bluray of The Marquise of O:

https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collections/frontpage-partner-labels/products/the-marquise-of-o

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 1 April 2025 18:02 (one year ago)

I never even tried watching any of his costume drama (apart from Triple Agent I guess). Really not what I feel I’m looking for in his work, but maybe it’s time to reconsider (I have the Blu-ray box set with all his films, maybe French only release, dunno?)

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 1 April 2025 18:06 (one year ago)

The Lady and the Duke one of his best.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 April 2025 19:06 (one year ago)

two weeks pass...

i may have seen le beau mariage a long time ago, the main actor seemed v famiiar

― buzza, Sunday, 20 April 2025 09:36 (one year ago)

oops familiar, not sure but the main actress puts this one in the top tier rohmer, having films composed 90% around women talking to each other if they are smart but also deranged is genius to me

― buzza, Sunday, 20 April 2025 09:41 (one year ago)

Beatrice Romand is kind of amazing.

― Nuts, whole hazelnuts (Tom D.), Sunday, 20 April 2025 10:04 (one year ago)

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