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.
― The Man With The Flavored Toothpick (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 22 September 2011 01:32 (thirteen years ago) link
Its Catholicism is its most interesting element, especially with an actor as rigorous as vinegary as Trintignant mouthing the abstractions.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 September 2011 01:35 (thirteen years ago) link
*and vinegary
It was my first Rohmer. I loved it.
― Gukbe, Thursday, 22 September 2011 01:35 (thirteen years ago) link
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.
― muus lääv? :D muus dut :( (Telephone thing), Thursday, 22 September 2011 01:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Chabrol! DAMN YOU IPHONE
― muus lääv? :D muus dut :( (Telephone thing), Thursday, 22 September 2011 01:41 (thirteen years ago) link
I can't believe tomorrow is my first viewing of La collectionneuse
― lumber up, limbaugh down (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 5 January 2012 03:29 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― millmeister, Thursday, 12 December 2013 16:49 (ten years ago) link
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
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 June 2014 14:11 (ten years ago) link
i must have missed the existence us dvd release, i watched the r2 artificial eye vers and its p bad, really murky
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 02:13 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Miss Anne Thrope (j.lu), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 02:28 (ten years ago) link
i wouldnt call a summers tale essential btw
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 02:38 (ten years ago) link
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
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 08:31 (ten years ago) link
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%A9graleNot a bad price actually.. :)
― video2000, Tuesday, 24 June 2014 10:32 (ten years ago) link
well j.lu, none of Summer's Tale was shot in Paris, so there's that
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 10:40 (ten years ago) link
my university library's owned a VHS for years; my intro to the lovely Melvin Poupaud.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 12:08 (ten years ago) link
*Melvil
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 24 June 2014 12:09 (ten years ago) link
weird to see a big poster for the first Oasis album in a few scenes of Summer's Tale
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Saturday, 4 October 2014 11:59 (nine years ago) link
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
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 23 December 2014 17:35 (nine years ago) link
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
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 February 2015 16:23 (nine years ago) link
Available for streaming on Netflix.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 February 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
"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.
― Banned on the Run (benbbag), Monday, 23 February 2015 18:19 (nine years ago) link
i.e. Melvil Poupaud is hot in a haughty, hostile way.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 February 2015 18:24 (nine years ago) link
gabbneb gtfo
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 February 2015 18:27 (nine years ago) link
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>
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 9 March 2015 15:02 (nine years ago) link
fuck fuck
https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/rohmers-guessing-gazes
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, 9 March 2015 15:03 (nine years ago) link
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.
― The Manner of Crawly (Tom D.), Monday, 15 June 2015 12:48 (nine years ago) link
http://www.bkmag.com/2016/06/22/costume-party-rohmer-swimsuits/
#vGdTick
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 22 June 2016 18:53 (eight years ago) link
Hehe that's a cool little article!
― niels, Wednesday, 22 June 2016 19:25 (eight years ago) link
― Poe, I know all about Ulalume (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 23 June 2016 01:42 (eight years ago) link
New English translation of recent bio.
― Secondary Modern Prometheus (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 24 June 2016 20:36 (eight years ago) link
link?
― johnny crunch, Friday, 24 June 2016 23:39 (eight years ago) 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
― Secondary Modern Prometheus (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 June 2016 00:00 (eight years ago) link
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.
― circa1916, Sunday, 26 June 2016 00:19 (eight years ago) link
All key elements throughout his career, I think you'll like all his films
― niels, Sunday, 26 June 2016 11:57 (eight years ago) link
I rewatched A Tale of Winter a couple weeks ago; he sure has a keenness for pretty boys.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 26 June 2016 12:07 (eight years ago) link
... coincidentally I watched A Tale of Summer last night, talking of pretty boys.
― They could have been Stackridge. (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 June 2016 13:02 (eight years ago) link
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.
― jmm, Sunday, 26 June 2016 13:41 (eight years ago) link
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
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 28 August 2016 23:57 (eight years ago) link
Would read as well, but right now too cheap to buy a copy.
― Hop on Pop. 1280 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 29 August 2016 01:03 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Gukbe, Monday, 29 August 2016 22:49 (eight years ago) link
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 burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 29 August 2016 22:57 (eight years ago) link
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
― jmm, Monday, 29 August 2016 23:51 (eight years ago) link
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.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 08:58 (eight years ago) link
“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.
― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Tuesday, 30 August 2016 11:34 (eight years ago) link
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
― jmm, Wednesday, 13 June 2018 17:05 (six years ago) link
it is indeed, thanks for sharing
I've been to that cinema, very nice
― niels, Friday, 15 June 2018 08:09 (six years ago) link
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
― Dan S, Thursday, 8 November 2018 23:51 (five years ago) link
it’s hard to read the movies on first viewing, they are so psychologically complex
― Dan S, Thursday, 8 November 2018 23:57 (five years ago) link