Eric Rohmer: C/D

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.

I should say more.

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.

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.

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"?

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.

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

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

I liked that thing with people walking about in paintings.

Or was that somebody else?

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

c0zen: no, but i should.

I watched 'la maman et la putain' earlier in the year, at the cinema no less. I think it's the first film I've watched with an intermission. everyone should see it.

might be a good start, but if you think you're going to stick around for more, put off 5. Of his films on the four seasons, I think I like Conte de printemps best.

I actually like this one a lot. Great photography of snowy French streets in the Old Town by the late great Nestor Almendros.

I might watch Conte d'Automne again, if I manage to see Sideways.

Here is a detailed review: Magical Realism in Conte d'automne (Autumn Tale, 1998).

"Summer (Le Rayon Vert)" is transcendent, his best of the last 25 years. And Melvil Poupaud in "A Summer's Tale" is just sex on legs.

"Triple Agent" is quite moribund, alas.

I really would like to see more.

cozen i'd advise seeing marquise of o!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone seen the new one that's going to be at the NYFF? Being called his last in the fest blurb.

Shit I hadn't heard this. I guess at age 87 it might be time to let go.

That's too bad, but I guess he's up there age-wise. It's a ridiculous proposition, but when people ask me who my favorite director is, it's always a toss-up between Rohmer and Bunuel. There's something appealing to me about his ethical depth and quiet, personal storytelling style. Also, I love his total lack of flash when compared to his contemporaries.

Oh, I haven't seen the Chris Rock remake of Chloe in the Afternoon. I'm afraid to mostly because no crazy electronic score means no Chloe in the Afternoon.

Hah yeah - that title sequence of 'Chloe'...

Thanks for the great movies !

http://www.liberation.fr/culture/0101613208-eric-rohmer-est-mort

I think I very well may watch one of his movies for the first time in his honor tonight.

it's sad when anybody dies.

^^^ statler and waldorf over here

Never thought "if only real people spoke more like people in movies" more than when I watched one of his films.

Actually, I made the mistake of thinking real French people DID talk like that, and bought a very expensive plane ticket to find out they talked more like the worst moments of Diva.

lol

tonight at bar trivia we will all speak like Tale of Winter characters

Although even the street people in France used fancy words like "désolée" instead of "sorry."

we all know that nrq can't relate Rohmer to "his culture"

(The guest on The Muppet Show this week is Steve Martin)

aw, RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NeRXbf7sEg

I really do intend to watch one of his movies, if not tonight, then sometime in my life. Gotta start sometime, right?

I remember Tarantino saying in the mid 90s he wanted to do a pseudo-Rohmer film, let's hope to God that never happens

which rohmer does the august ilx film dude recommend for young impressionable nouvelle vague come-lately here?

Yeah, he should leave that stuff for Rick Linklater, Motbius.

I'm not putting you down for that, Eric.

Les nuits de la pleine lune
Was just checking on Fabrice Luchini to see if anybody was left standing from that one.

My favorites:

My Night at Maud's
Chloe in the Afternoon
Pauline at the Beach
Summer
A Winter's Tale
An Autumn's Tale
The Lady and the Duke

we all know that nrq can't relate Rohmer to "his culture"

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Monday, January 11, 2010 5:55 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

no, i can, northern european bourgeoisie is close enough. 'ma nuit chez maud' is the one to go for imo.

I'm afraid if anybody gives any suggestions to the impressionable Louis, it will be like when the Federation starship left the Roaring Chicago book on the planet with Vic Tayback.

Yeah, he should leave that stuff for Rick Linklater

grrrrrr! yes, his best films are like the Before movies if they had a non-punchable man in them.

Lots of insufferable characters in Rohmer films.

yes, but no slick grungemeisters.

"What I say, I do not say with words. I do not say it with images, either, with all due respect to partisans of pure cinema, who would speak with images as a deaf-mute does with his hands. After all, I do not say, I show. I show people who move and speak. That is all I know how to do, but that is my true subject. The rest, I agree, is literature."

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2010/01/eric-rohmer-19202010.html

Lots of insufferable characters in Rohmer films.

― Hell is other people. In an ILE film forum. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, January 11, 2010 1:27 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yes, but no slick grungemeisters.

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Monday, January 11, 2010 1:29 PM (11 minutes ago) BookmarkpAlso, they don't always go unpunished.

Don't know if I told you this before but before the first Before was made, there was some talk in Austin that the lead was going to be David Thewlis.

Not to play into the hands of the history mayne, but thinking about it, his kind of clean "non-cinematic" visual style reminds me of that of his, um, co-religionist Luis Buñuel.

Lots of insufferable characters in Rohmer films.

I meant to say: But they're mostly girls, just like IRL

[/Homer Simpson]

which rohmer does the august ilx film dude recommend for young impressionable nouvelle vague come-lately here?

rayon vert (green ray) (summer)

or my night at maud's

(ma nuit chez maud)

Pauline at the Beach
A Tale of Springtime
An Autumn Tale

Claire's Knee's the only canonical one I find overrated; prefer Chloe in the Afternoon

Have a soft spot for Chloe in the Afternoon because we saw that in intro French. Love that part about how he has a different book to read on the bus or on the train or on the park bench or whatever the breakdown was.

btw I would remind you that Chris Rock has already done a Rohmer remake.

from Nestor Almendros' OOP memoir, on working with E.R.:

http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/the-perfect-moment-20100112

Argh, I got rid of that book during a move.

I had a friend who is a DP who complained about the information provided therein, but now I see from those excerpts that maybe it was more about a cinematographer talking about the great directors with whom he worked rather than giving away trade secrets.

My little tribute to him.

Well done.

Astrea and Celadon is fun proto-Shakespeare, tho the luscious Andy Gillet looks a bit too much like Ashton Kutcher when in drag. It could've been called Astrea's Breast. Great last scene.

http://www.observer.com/files/full/sarrisROMANCE-OF-ASTREA-CEL.jpg

^^^ That movie was so erotic, and tonally weird, too, what with it being a contemporary movie based on a fourteenth century text of a story set in the fourth century (or something along those lines).

Rohmer was so old so I think he had a good run and don't feel sad or anything, but I watched, like, eight or nine or ten of his movies in 2009, and read two of his stories. He was a real clever ironist, and I liked how his formalism would always lay bare his plotting and the philosophical ideas he folded in without making it all seem easy or empty. Although Pauline Kael disagreed; she thought he made well-crafted fluff, I think.

which stories did you read? I bough the Moral Tales book but quickly realized I'd rather just watch the films.

Yes on the tonal weirdness of Astrea & Celadon - I put it down to the utter strangeness of doing a dead Renaissance genre (one that is to me both fascinating & basically unreadable) completely straight (I mean there are plenty of ironies there, but he's not mocking the conventions of the genre afaict). It's a lovely back and forth reflection - a neglected ancestor of the novel coming to life in the hands of a director who's novel-y in his film-making.

And yes on the erotic aspect. I have not been so engaged by a breast in a film for a long time.

I was engaged by Andy Gillet's cleft and philtrum.

I think I read My Night at Maud's and Love in the Afternoon. Both were excellent. Though I haven't seen My Night at Maud's because of how poorly the subtitles are programmed (and by Criterion, too).

Yeah, he films very straight. His ironies are definitely in his scripts, not in his film-making, and Astrea & Celadon, which I liked a lot, was probably his most formally rigid of the movies of his I've seen.

I don't know what a philtrum is. Oh, I see.

Why Astrea & Celadon was probably erotic for me: it was the sisterly closeness, and the taboo-ness of the relationship. The one is supposed to be a girl and even looks like a girl, and girls, you know, aren't supposed to be with girls, at least not in the Dark Ages? And I don't quite remember, but it seems like there was some incest angle, too. The falseness, the fact that it's perfectly acceptable for the two to be together if only Astrea and all the others were really to know that Celadon was Celadon, the elongated time it takes for them to couple, all of that makes it all even more erotic - it's this delayed gratification thing, I guess, but it also has some of the taboo-type eroticism of Mother's Three Daughters or some hackneyed incest manga.

Who's seen Aviator's Wife? I thought that was a little masterpiece.

Though I haven't seen My Night at Maud's because of how poorly the subtitles are programmed (and by Criterion, too).

The subtitles on this looked fine to me.

I didn't notice much of a difference between the Maud's subtitles and others I've seen - I guess I don't understand how they were "poorly programmed"

Because you don't have a $25 dvd player, Ms. Class Signifiers (semi-colon, hyphen, closing parenthesis). If you did, you'd be able to tell when the dvd production people are half-assing it or not. About 2/3s of the subtitles stay up for only about 1 or 2 frames.

so sorry - I have a $35 dvd player.

Why would you assume I have some fancy DVD player anyway?

Coby or gtfo.

LOL! - I have a Coby story, but I'm gtfo-ing.

What Rohmer was quick to grasp, and what accounts for his singularity, is the constitutive ambiguity of the "point of view" in film—the impossibility, when filming, of occupying an attributable place, a fate both fortunate and cruel. Or, as Bonitzer would say, the filmmaker's singular fate of being both transparent and masked. A cinema of frivolity? Rather a cinema of cruelty, but in the stark summer light: "On neither the sun, nor death, can a man look fixedly," wrote another great French moralist, La Rochefoucauld. Triple Agent closes with a terse, legal, "she is dead," which casts the coldest possible gaze upon a love story. Wrongly dismissed from the New Wave by some as a "classicist," triple-agent Rohmer coined a unique variation on the most famous of modernist cinematic tropes. In his films, Harriet Andersson's or Jean-Paul Belmondo's stark stare into the lens is cruelly reversed onto the protagonists and onto the narrative itself.

http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/a-cinema-of-cruelty-20100115

that sounds p clever but ehhh no. "the filmmaker's singular fate of being both transparent and masked" is a vraiment example of le having it both ways.

perhaps im being stupid, but what does the first sentence mean? in detail, i mean, with reference to an actual moment in a rohmer film. (indeed, an early rohmer film, because he was "quick to grasp" the "constitutive ambiguity" meme.) it sounds a lot like "presence in absence", which is a kind of annoying concept, partly for its ubiquity in film studies.

I just post.

as I already posted somewhere, a friend of mine once said that at the end of all of Rohmer's films you realize that the main action has happened off camera or rather that the main story was not the one being filmed. Could taht be the "constitutive ambiguity of the "point of view" in film"?

I am watching Summer again tonight, which is an exception to that pattern -- the climax is a real climax, and the plot is pretty straightforward.

history mayne - Transparent and masked because the transparency is in the filmmaking and the masking is in the storytelling, maybe. The masking is in the ironies - the characters not saying what they mean, &c.

baaderonixx - The main story is happening off-screen? So in "The Girl at the Monceau Bakery," the story of the girl the hero chases is our real story? Or the story of the girl at the bakery? To me it seems like the story presented is our story. Does your friend say that because of narrative sleights-of-hand or because of inferences you have to make into what resides in the characters? Or something I'm not considering.

Anyway, you friend's idea is interesting.

nah i *think* what it means -- coz it's the filmmaker's fate -- is that (this is certainly what film theorists use "presence-in-absence" to mean) well, we know where the camera is placed. but in the reverse shot we don't ever see it. hence the look into the lens being deeply significant. i could be wrong but i've read stuff along those lines. i don't think she convincingly relates it to rohmer though.

and i mean, in the rohmer films i've seen, the significant action is what we see. not in that french revolution one (quite liked that iirc).

I'll try to find time to read the article this weekend and think about it. I don't think it relates, either, if that's what she's saying.

xxp. I don't remember how the Boulangère de Manceau ends anymore, but for ex. Suzanne's Career or Full Moon in Paris ends with the realization that while the main featured character was discussing what to do, making us believe he/she was the one in control of the story being told, the real action (in both meanings of the word) and the decision-making was being done by the absent character (ie. Suzanne, or Pascale Ogier's boyfriend)

Interesting interview with him on the DVD of La Collectionneuse. Didn't know he was such a chatterbox, although maybe that shouldn't have been a surprise.

Gonna watch "Perceval" tonite

I think I read My Night at Maud's and Love in the Afternoon. Both were excellent. Though I haven't seen My Night at Maud's because of how poorly the subtitles are programmed (and by Criterion, too).

Watched My Night at maud's yesterday and I think its a new (bfi) print and the subtitles seem fine.

Other than that I enjoyed it enough, actually think is the best one of his I've seen, but don't have an awful lot more to say.

Le Rayon Vert/Summer is playing in NY then touring, in a new print.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/le-rayon-vert/5556

I was going to post your review, which I quite enjoyed.

i really love 'claire's knee.' will have to check out the rest of those moral tales at some point.

Le Rayon Vert has to be the Rohmer film I enjoyed watching the most the very first time. I watched it when trapped in my house for seven days during a freeze. The character seemed annoyingly neurotic to me when the film began but I quickly sympathized and understood her issues and came to like that character more and more.

I saw 4 Adventures of Reinette & Mirabelle for the first time in 20+ years; it's a fun trifle. Then Marie Riviere did an onstage interview before a video-doc profile she made of E.R. was shown (alas I had to choose dinner over the doc). She described Rayon Vert's improvised dialogue, and choked up at the end.

Oh how cool!!!!

I'm watching My Night at Maud's and bored out of my goddamn mind. Is there a better approach toRohmer for a newcomer?

I'm not sure what it is that's turned me off so thoroughly; I guess maybe a combination of his, um, restrained visual style and the focus on Christianity? Or maybe I just had a shitty day and I'm coming to it with the wrong mindset, which is also a distinct possibility.

Wrong mindset perhaps. It's pretty stage-y for a film w/multiple locations. I last watched it around last x-mas and was reminded how well Rohmer could capture feelings and vibes, in this case those of the holiday season and taking stock of the past on one hand while gripping the future with the other.

Its Catholicism is its most interesting element, especially with an actor as rigorous as vinegary as Trintignant mouthing the abstractions.

*and vinegary

It was my first Rohmer. I loved it.

Yeah, Trintignant has Been the beat part of the film by far-I'll have to come back to this later, I'm letting too much personal stuff get in the way of what I can at least tell is a thoughtful and carefully crafted film. It took me a while to warm up to Chavrol, too.

Chabrol! DAMN YOU IPHONE

I can't believe tomorrow is my first viewing of La collectionneuse

Watched La collectionneuse last week which I loved. The 2nd comment on this thread accuses Rohmer of being visually low key but he doesn't half use some stunning locations. The Lake Annecy location in Claire's Knee is also beautiful.

I am a convert.

A Summer's Tale ('96) is beginning to make the arthouse rounds -- apparently it's never gotten a commercial US release, but that still feels like a weird marketing ploy; not only have NYC rep houses shown it regularly for 15+ years, it did get a domestic DVD release years ago. Anyway, it's essential even if you don't think 22-yo Melvil Poupaud is one of the loveliest Frenchmen ever.

http://www.filmcomment.com/entry/review-a-summers-tale-eric-rohmer

i must have missed the existence us dvd release, i watched the r2 artificial eye vers and its p bad, really murky

I missed half of the Rohmer series at the National Gallery a few years ago, but my impression was of attractive young people walking around attractive parts of Paris, talking about sex but never actually getting it on. But then my favorite Rohmer is Triple Agent, so obviously I know nothing.

i wouldnt call a summers tale essential btw

yeah Summer Tale is definitely minor, I'd say. This reminds me that I so want someone to buy me
the complete blu-ray collection

http://www.amazon.fr/Coffret-Rohmer-int%C3%A9gral-pochette-Blu-ray/dp/B00E8WL6EA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403598518&sr=8-1&keywords=rohmer+l%27int%C3%A9grale
Not a bad price actually.. :)

well j.lu, none of Summer's Tale was shot in Paris, so there's that

my university library's owned a VHS for years; my intro to the lovely Melvin Poupaud.

*Melvil

weird to see a big poster for the first Oasis album in a few scenes of Summer's Tale

i want someone to agree with me that anne-laure meury is cute
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, December 30, 2004 8:52 PM (9 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i watched this today, almost a decade late but - agreed! she is really sparkling and great in it, and id put the film as a whole in prob the top third of rohmer, very captivating though w/ incred ease and naturalism

Adrian Martin on A Summer's Tale:

Gaspard is an extraordinary portrait of a modern man. I say this with the image in my mind of so many awful, politically correct, simplistic critiques of masculinity in movies of the past few decades. I watch a certain kind of analysis of manhood on screen these days—depictions of swaggering, blocked, violent, macho guys—and I feel nothing. But I predict that the character-portrait of Gaspard is one which most thoughtful, urbane guys will find genuinely unnerving. Seeing this chap on screen is like seeing some dark secret shared among men, leaked out for the whole world to see.

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/a-summers-tale-some-kind-of-liar

Available for streaming on Netflix.

"Gaspard is an extraordinary portrait of a modern man. I say this with the image in my mind of so many awful, politically correct, simplistic critiques of masculinity in movies of the past few decades. I watch a certain kind of analysis of manhood on screen these days—depictions of swaggering, blocked, violent, macho guys—and I feel nothing. But I predict that the character-portrait of Gaspard is one which most thoughtful, urbane guys will find genuinely unnerving. Seeing this chap on screen is like seeing some dark secret shared among men, leaked out for the whole world to see."

I hope this guy at least has any idea what he's talking about.

i.e. Melvil Poupaud is hot in a haughty, hostile way.

gabbneb gtfo

parsing shots from A Summer's Tale

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/121096412"; width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>

fuck fuck

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/rohmers-guessing-gazes

Watched 'Pauline a la Plage' last night and noticed one of the albums incorrigible sleazeball Henri had in his house was 'Bongo Fury' by Zappa & Beefheart! Also didn't know Arielle Dombasle is married to Bernard-Henri Levy.

http://www.bkmag.com/2016/06/22/costume-party-rohmer-swimsuits/

#vGdTick

Hehe that's a cool little article!

Watched 'Pauline a la Plage' last night and noticed one of the albums incorrigible sleazeball Henri had in his house was 'Bongo Fury' by Zappa & Beefheart! Also didn't know Arielle Dombasle is married to Bernard-Henri Levy.

New English translation of recent bio.

link?

Long before the release of his first feature, Rohmer brought about a revolution in the name of others, as critic, editor, and friend.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/eric-rohmers-elusive-life-revealed-in-a-new-biography

Ha, the text above the link in my post was auto generated.

Saw (I believe?) my first Rohmer film today. My Night at Maud's. Amazing. The scene, the "night", was so well brilliantly orchestrated. Beyond the ~fencing~ of the dialogue, the physical movement and positioning of the characters was fascinating. Will be digging into the filmography for sure.

All key elements throughout his career, I think you'll like all his films

I rewatched A Tale of Winter a couple weeks ago; he sure has a keenness for pretty boys.

... coincidentally I watched A Tale of Summer last night, talking of pretty boys.

I've watched a bunch of his films recently. The only one I haven't liked is Astrea and Celadon, in which the erotic intent comes out flat. Reinette and Mirabelle was a nice surprise. It's a bit unstable -- the beauty of the first episode feels like a different movie from the hijinks of the last episode -- but I really liked it.

will read:

Where the book really shines is in constructing a through-line of Rohmer’s aesthetic and its consistency from theory to practice. The authors quote generously from Rohmer’s critical work and locate key tenets from the very beginning. “In contrast to graphic, purely visual expression, cinema makes use of the means that are specific to it and creates meaning when it moves about objects or bodies within the space of the frame and a flat surface, in accord with an organization inspired by nature,” de Baecque and Herpe comment when citing Rohmer’s very first published critical essay, “Le cinema, art de la espace.” from 1948. Cut to twenty years later, and the making of “My Night At Maud’s.” Preparing the room of the title character, Rohmer “spent hours placing this or that object” on the set. “One fine day, [lead actor Jean-Louis] Trintignant openly criticized Rohmer for paying less attention to him than to the ashtrays. To which the filmmaker replied ‘I’m less worried about you than about the ashtrays.’” The recounting of the shoots and the examination of the results eventually demolishes the idea of Rohmer as a paragon of talky semi-humanist cinema and assists in an appreciation of him as a sublime aesthete whose works are exquisitely crafted critiques of human vanity. Their moral value lies not in the lessons they may or may not impart, but in their perfection of form.

http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/book-review-eric-rohmer-a-biography

Would read as well, but right now too cheap to buy a copy.

Loaded it up on my Kindle a month ago but stuck on a book about the divvying up of the Middle East.

Mubi put up two Rohmer films I haven't seen over the weekend. Will hopefully check them out this week.

I saw Full Moon in Paris, hard to find even on VHS, last night. I liked Jonathan Romney's review last year

Not all Rohmer films are tied indissolubly to their moment. The first in that series, The Aviator’s Wife (81), with its landscape of parks, cafés, and bedsits, is set in a Paris that would not have been so different two decades earlier, while some of his later films, including episodes in the “Four Seasons” series (90-98), could easily be made today without much discrepancy. But Full Moon in Paris* is entirely a snapshot of its instant. Visually and sonically, 1984 is present throughout. It’s there in the music, a frothy neo-yé-yé electro-pop score by duo Elli and Jacno, alumni of pioneering French punk band Stinky Toys (singer Elli Medeiros is glimpsed dancing in a party scene). And it’s there in the décor: grey walls, Mondrian prints, “witty” lamps (heroine Louise is a trendy creative who makes her own lights, presumably because she’s unable to afford Memphis creations). Other design touches include the neo-classical pillar in Louise’s apartment, and novelty furnishings like the trompe l’oeil sofa at her workplace (at first, I thought it was held together by masking tape, then realized it was painted to resemble the table in front of it, complete with vase of flowers—oh, that crazy design decade).

The results are mixed; I didn't entirely believe Louise's torment. But I can accept the argument that based on the evidence (Pauline on the Beach, Summer, Boyfriends and Girlfriends) the '80s were Rohmer's best decade.

http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-of-the-week-full-moon-in-paris/

the '80s were Rohmer's best decade.

I think that's true, with Rayon vert/Summer being the best.

I'm curious to see this, about the planned community Cergy-Pontoise which features in Boyfriends and Girlfriends. That's my favourite setting in a Rohmer film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27enfance_d%27une_ville

looks interesting - always fascianted by Cergy (the name comes from Ypsilon in reverse due to shape of the city, I mearn rather late). "Naissance des Pieuvres" also captures that 80's (sub)urban planning vibe.

“One fine day, [lead actor Jean-Louis] Trintignant openly criticized Rohmer for paying less attention to him than to the ashtrays. To which the filmmaker replied ‘I’m less worried about you than about the ashtrays.’”

Great quote.

This is lovely. Marie Rivière and Vincent Gauthier of The Green Ray meeting again for the first time in 28 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9suLKuabI

it is indeed, thanks for sharing

I've been to that cinema, very nice

Watched the Six Moral Tales. My favorite was My Night at Maud’s. It contained so much - the inhibitions of catholicism, the sense of unburdening in experiencing an all night conversation, the confusion about another’s thoughts, the guilt over temptation, the reinforcing of a self-interested moral stance. The photography in the film was also really beautiful

it’s hard to read the movies on first viewing, they are so psychologically complex

I thought La Collectionneuse and Suzanne’s Career were also pretty great

Maud's is also one of the great Xmas movies.

yes!

can see why Hong Sang-soo is compared to Eric Rohmer, with the casual unspooling of story lines and similar relationship themes from film to film

Claire’s Knee was maybe the most beautiful of all of them visually, but it was hard for me to appreciate the story

^^ my favorite movie of 2018

if you want a time capsule of a movie, watch Full Moon in Paris, in which an old French director grapple with characters with 1980s attitudes about fashion, music, interior design, etc.

*grapples

I think you're talking about Claire's Camera Alfred (which I am looking forward to seeing!) I was referring to the 1970 film

Full Moon in Paris is on my list!

I couldn't relate to the middle aged man obsessing over teenage girls in Claire's Knee, as beautiful as it was

The Bakery Girl of Monceau and Love in the Afternoon were both good I thought. Haven’t seen any of the later Rohmer films yet

So many good films.

Haven’t seen everything single thing, but don’t think I’ve seen one that I thought was a flop

I think you're talking about Claire's Camera Alfred (which I am looking forward to seeing!) I was referring to the 1970 film

dunno how I misread your post -- you're right

All the Moral Tales and the "Comedies & Proverbs" are classics. Full Moon in Paris, Suzanne's career and the Bakery Girl of Monceau are probably my faves.
Haven't watched any of his films in a while. I'm holding off til I finally decide to splash out on the full blu-ray box set.

Love in the Afternoon is so damn sensual, Rohmer has a thing with filming proximity between people

I love every Rohmer movie, guy was a real genius

really enjoyed watching Pauline at the Beach. I love the dialogue in his films

Here's what I'd keep.

I just watched "La Collectionneuse" not two hours ago.

only seen a few but La Collectionneus didn't work for me, characters too self aware and too idle to feel consequence, where the naiveté or idealism in Maude's and The Aviator's Wife, is just so much richer.

New Year's resolution: finally watch at least one Rohmer film.

I don't think the characters are self-aware in La Collectionneuse at all, I think they're kidding themselves they are, not an uncommon occurrence in a Rohmer film. The fact that they're all horrible makes it hard to care what happens to them though.

Yeah, often in these films characters talk about themselves a lot but are not actually what you would call self-aware

Self-deluding is more like it. The narrator in La Collectionneuse is so smug, pompous and silly you almost feel like cheering when the (slimy repellent) art collector character gives him a verbal kicking.

I definitely saw Autumn and Springtime within the last few years, but for some reason I can't remember a thing about then. And I adore the other two in that series.

saw A Tale of Winter just last night, really loved it! I think it and My Night at Maud's together make a nice pair of christmas films

haven't seen The Green Ray yet, and don't really want to spend $40+ on a dvd

I associate those two as well. His (SPOILER) willingness in Tale of Winter to give his heroine the miracle she wanted is really moving, I think (although unfortunate for her other suitors.)

yes, I was surprised by how much I loved the ending

Finally got the Blu-ray box set. Can’t wait to dig back in and rewatch them all with my wife (who hasn’t seen any). I watched half of Friend of my Friend, which surprisingly didn’t really work for me any more (and really bored my wife). I think I will try the Green Ray next

which ones are in the blu ray set?

all of them!

yeah, it's comprehensive

It's got all the films, all the shorts and the various bits of TV docu stuff he did early on in his career. There's also a whole disc of shorts directed by his stable of (young, female) students (creepy?) from the mid 90's onwards.

cool, will be looking out for that...

is it this one? http://www.potemkine.fr/Potemkine-film/Coffret-eric-rohmer-l-integrale-coffret-eric-rohmer-l-integrale/pa61m3f210.html

that link doesn't work for me devvvine

are you guys talking about the 22 dvd Region B box set?

here's the google translated info

Package Content:

27 digipacks, for a total of 30 DVDs accompanied by their blu-ray declination for the 22 films restored in high definition.
A booklet of 100 pages
A surprise pouch ...
All nestled in a solid illustrated cardboard box, as well as its contents, by the drawings of Nine Antico , limited edition and numbered .

A total of 24 feature films , 9 short films including 2 unreleased short films and dozens of hours of bonus material: unpublished interviews with the actors and the closest collaborators of the filmmaker, documentary signed Eric Rohmer, documents archives .. The short films made by her actresses will be put together on two bonus DVDs .

watched Claire's Knee recently. first Rohmer I've seen. Didn't like it at all. are all of his movies just boring horny men talking forever?

I cannot tell a lie.

That's one of his least likable protagonists.

I highly recommend checking out The Green Ray, one of my favourite films ever. It's quite different.

That's part of the Six Moral Tales, although I wouldn't quite characterize it as boring horny men talking forever, (it's also 'you better marry that blonde and forget that brunette') it's more like that than his other films. People still talk forever though.

... Claire's Knee not The Green Ray, that is.

Eric Rohmer's Horny Commiseration Conversation Cycle

lol

I think it's worth watching the Six Moral Tales in order to see the progression in his filmmaking

Not that The Green Ray isn't horny and miserable in its own way.

yeah I wasn't sure how to approach the Moral Tales, only one I had heard of was Claire's Knee and was thinking of just hopscotching around the rest of them. I'll check out The Green Ray next

tbh all I kept thinking was "french woody allen... french woody allen... french woody allen..." although it's maybe closer to Linklater's Before trilogy? (which I love)

Sad horny men thinking they are about to make serious moral choices, while in fact the women are doing all the choosing

he has lots of female leads?

I'm curious what's in an Eric Rohmer surprise pouch

(xp) Not in the Six Moral Tales.

XP It was flavored tea, iirc.

Yeah two teabags, some postcards and a Claire’s knee poster

Is that to do with the tea scene in Night at Maud's?

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

Keep Rohmer far away from that shit.

oooooooooooh!!

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.

I finally saw The Green Ray 💚

The movie or the phenomenon?

💚

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

the movie 😔

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.

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

Eric Rohmer's TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS - new restorations coming soon! pic.twitter.com/BEluXXmx4x

— Janus Films (@janusfilms) February 26, 2021

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

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

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

Worth the wait!.

autumn tale is on mubi uk right now

I like A Summer's Tale even more

ok but it isn't on mubi

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

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

^not in the US :(

For either. HBO Max has a few though.

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.

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.

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

I just linked to it on the real mubi uk!

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

Wait you guys don’t get Criterion?

Does that version of o/g MUBI still exist?

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

it exists on my phone

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

Wait you guys don’t get Criterion?

Nope.

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.

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

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

(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.)

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.

I have them on dvd too

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/

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

Tales of the Four Seasons streaming on Criterion Channel.

god I love Melvil Poupaud.

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.

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

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

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

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.

New Bluray of The Marquise of O:

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

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?)

The Lady and the Duke one of his best.

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

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

Beatrice Romand is kind of amazing.