La collectionneuse (The Collector) (1967)

Director: Eric Rohmer
Writers:  Patrick Bauchau, Haydee Politoff, Daniel Pommereulle, Eric Rohmer
Cast:       Patrick Bauchau, Haydee Politoff, Daniel Pommereulle
Language: French

A womanizing art dealer and his painter friend find the serenity of their Riviera vacation disturbed by a third guest, a vivacious bohemian woman known for her long list of male conquests. They first resist her, calling out on her mentality which they describe as that of a 'Collector', but then can't resist and its not clear who is really in control of this game of 'collecting' relationships.

As you can see from the writing credits, the main three actors in it have been credited for the dialogue and this was a film done by Eric Rohmer while he was waiting for the availability of Jean-Louis Trintignant for 'My Night at Maud's'. Film is considered to be part of Eric Rohmer's series of 'Six Moral Tales' and is the fourth one in it (third, going by release dates). Like all Rohmer films, it is just everyday activities of classy Europeans elevated into art without too much drama associated with it. It will not be up everyone's alley but I do enjoy them immensely as one time watches. 

Eric Rohmer is someone who doesn't get mentioned enough when people talk about the greatest directors of all time and is sort of a hidden gem despite numerous awards that he got in European film festivals. His style has not influenced many as well but I did stumble on to him when some article cited his influence on Richard Linklater's 'Before Midnight'. But I think the comparison only holds in terms of location aspects and filming style but not necessarily in terms of content and scripting. I won't recommend this film as a gateway one to visit Rohmer's filmography and you will be better off if you start with more famous films of his.

PS: Rohmer is more of an influence on Noah Baumbach rather than Linklater. 

Rating: 3.5/5

                                                                               

Ma nuit chez Maud (My Night with Maud) (1969)

Director: Eric Rohmer
Writer:    Eric Rohmer
Cast:       Jean-Louis Trintignant, Francoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault
Language: French

The rigid principles of a devout catholic, Jean-Louis (Trintignant), is challenged during a one-night stay with Maud (Francoise Fabian), a divorced woman with an outsize personality.

The film begins with Jean, an engineer and mathematician by profession, in a church noticing a blonde woman to whom he is attracted to and follows her into the streets. Later on that day he meets his philosophy teaching friend with whom he has not met for almost fifteen years. The friend takes him to Maud's house where the three have a conversation on religion, atheism, morality and Blaise Pascal's life and writings on philosophy, faith and mathematics. Jean ends up staying at her house for the night proceeding to have further conversation on his his catholic views on marriage, fidelity and his obligation for already proclaiming that he is in love with a young woman whom  however, he has never yet spoken to. 

This is the third one in Rohmer's 'Six Moral Tales' series and all of them have the  protagonist in love with a woman, but falls in love with another woman leading to a moral conundrum whose other side always will be the former one winning over the latter. In this film the morality is related to Jean-Louis' Catholicism. For him the ideal woman would be a blonde catholic but the second woman in this film is Maud, a brunette libertine. She is perturbed by Jean-Louis' lack of spontaneity and pre-conceived notions but nevertheless become great friends over the twenty-four hour period since they are not weighed down by expectations regarding the future. We later on learn that the catholic blonde woman  with whom he gets married to later was responsible for Maud's divorce. The final sequence of the film takes place five years later at a beach resort with Jean-Louis, happy with his wife and young son, meeting a visibly unhappy Maud who has married again without much success. It can be seen as another interpretation of the famous Pascal's wager but this time in relation to earthly happiness instead of heavenly redemption. The wager is as follows:

"It posits that humans all bet with their lives either that God exists or not. Given the possibility that God actually does exist and assuming an infinite gain or loss associated with belief or unbelief in said God (as represented by an eternity in heaven or hell), a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.)."

Pascal formulated this wager on a Christian framework and it was published posthumously in Pensees. I enjoyed the film very much even though I don't care much for Pascal's wager. The main distinction in it lies in the pleasures being finite on Earth and heaven/hell being infinite after death. It is all well and good but he  doesn't consider the possibility that most religions in the World have a vengeance fueled ego-maniacal and demanding asshole as God and even if you do live a 'Good Life', there is no guarantee that you would please the dude according to different scriptures about him. So I would rather live a life of freedom up to my death, after which there is nothing with a probability of 99.9% rather than live a life full of fear with a slight 0.0001% hope for heaven. He doesn't consider the fact that zero* infinity is also zero and if there is no life after death, then the freedom I get becomes infinite.

Rating: 4.5/5

Le Genou de Claire (Claire's Knee) (1970)

Director: Eric Rohmer
Writer:    Eric Rohmer
Cast:       Jean-Claude Brialy, Aurora Cornu, Beatrice Romand, Laurence de Monaghan
Language:French

On a holiday, a conflicted man lusts after beautiful stepsisters despite his betrothal to a diplomat's daughter. As the testimonial in the film's attached poster says, any attempt to explain the film with words will just diminish it just like the previous sentence did.

Jerome is spending his last holidays as a bachelor at Lake Annecy where he meets Aurora, an Italian writer and old friend. She tells him that her landlady's youngest daughter, Laura, has a crush on him and talks him into flirting him with her just to prove that he is interesting enough to be a subject for her in her writings. He claims that he is doing it just for her like a guinea pig but eventually falls for Laura's half-sister Claire and develops a desire to caress her knee. All this to give his writer-friend some interesting ideas and source material. All this is interspersed with chatter on love, friendship, importance of friendship in love, which comes first or should there be an order, analysis of feelings etc. 

Eric Rohmer is not for everyone but if you like Richard Linklater's 'Before Trilogy' then this should be right up your alley. Unlike Linklater films, there is at the same time a rawness as well as artificiality in some of the dialog which might sound contradictory. It had to do with the writer character but after I saw the film I came to know that she is supposed to be Italian which explains her French accent and the slow way in which she delivers it. Jerome might very well be using her as an excuse to push the boundaries. Film has got lots of subtle humor which can be contrasted with Kubrick's Lolita which is another one that dealt with similar kind of relationship at least in terms of age difference. I can't see a film like Claire's Knee coming out these days since it treads a fine line between teenage crush and pedophilia and this ambiguity will attract criticism if it was released now. The conversations between the writer and Jerome reminded me of Lars Von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac' even though the subjects are very different.   

Film is fifth one in Rohmer's 'Six Moral Stories' series. The only other film I have seen from Rohmer so far is 'A Summer's Tale' and I thought that was great as well but is more ambiguous. One thing I have noticed in the film is Rohmer lingering the camera on the character who is listening with a delayed attention on one who is talking. I intend to watch his other major works. He was a prolific director and made his last film in 2007 at an age of 87. He died in 2010 at the age of 90.

Rating: 5/5

Conte d'été (A Summer's Tale) (1996)

Director: Eric Rohmer
Writer:    Eric Rohmer
Cast:       Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Gwanaelle Simon, Aurelia Nolin
Language: French

A shy Maths graduate takes a holiday in Dinard waiting for his girlfriend Lena. She is late and he strikes up friendship with another girl Margot. She in turn introduces him to a further lady (Solene) who fancies him. Thus the young man finds himself having to manage this situation which is kind of novel for him. As Margot, whom he kind of friend-zoned, tells him that he is like a bum who wakes up as a millionaire having no  idea what to do.

Richard Linklater's Before trilogy is certainly among the best one could  find in the romantic conversational type genre. It certainly is very realistic but a drawback that one could say with that is that the couple in question adds too much star quality in those films even though the level of maturity shown by them in terms of thought process  kind of justifies. But at the end of the day they are not that relatable even though you kind of nods in agreement with what they say. A Summer's Tale is like a rawer version with the characters exhibiting a level of intellectualism that borders on the pseudo territory which makes it much more relatable. It is much harder to pull off because doing extremes is easy since the filmmakers also tend to be on extremes when it comes to talent and thinking. The characters can be quite irritable but no rulebook says you have to like the characters in a film to enjoy the film. 

The three girls in the young man's summer fits into the three of the four broad stereotypes that one could fit people into based on intellect and beauty. His girlfriend Lena is both intellectual and beautiful but he doesn't have a strong hand (George Costanza speak) in that relationship and feels a sense of inferiority with her. Margot is an intellectual but plain looking and even though they both kind of try to keep their relationship at the platonic level she is attracted to him. Solene is the stereotyped cheerleader type of girl. None of the ladies are kind of ideal for him and he likes to have the decisions taken out of him by circumstances like the ending of the film suggests.  

The film is the third one in Eric Rohmer's Tales of Four Seasons which also includes 'A Tale of Springtime', 'A Tale of Winter' and 'Autumn Tale'. This is the first film I have seen from Eric Rohmer and I will certainly check out his other films. He dies in 2010 and was part of the French New Wave in the sixties. One can certainly see his influence in the works of Richard Linklater and Noah Baumbach,  both of whose films I enjoy a lot.

Rating: 4/5