Six from the Eric Rohmer Retrospective at Lincoln Center

Here are some highlights from the Eric Rohmer Retrospective at Lincoln Center which is moving into its finally days. 

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The Bakery Girl of Monceau & Suzanne’s Career make of a pair of films that are simply heartbreaking. Circa 1963, Rohmer displays why women don’t trust men as best as has been done on film. Not to be dismissed because they are short films, along with the other Moral Tales, these are some of his best works. They’re great examples of how Rohmer captured on celluloid an entire generation of “flaneurs,” made famous by the previous generation’s writing of Verlaine, Rimbaud and company, but rarely represented in film as it’s a quite literary concept. 

Rohmer is literary though, and these works, especially considering their use of voiceover, are as literary as he and film gets. These are the best examples of his work to show how he is the only filmmaker who can compare to his predecessors, the poets Verlaine and Rimbaud with the major difference between they and Rohmer is that Rohmer left the alcohol and drugs out of the equation, cutting out any excuses for the morality plays that ensue. That is, while many will blame corrupting influences such as drugs, alcohol and sex on Verlaine’s characters’ downward spirals, Rohmer’s characters descend into moral decadence all on their own.

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In 1970, following its release, Vincent Canby said Claire’s Knee “comes very close to being a perfect movie” in his NY Times review. It would be a better world with more of these literary film masterpieces as they’re all about dialogue and performance, lending as much subtext as ever crammed into the medium. Nestor Almendros’ eye behind the camera is better than ever in its restraint and with its pointed glances, not only in the obvious titular Knee scenes. Although My Night At Maud has historically been considered Rohmer’s best, Claire’s knee might make a stronger connection with the audiences of today.

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Sloppy and contrived, but in the best kind of way, an almost unrecognizable young Bruno Ganz toplines 76’s The Marquise of O, a film that seems like it should be the archetype of so many independent films and Lifetime Movies of the Week alike. What this film does best is story. With performances that go between over the top and, leaving viewers wanting a lot more, the narrative draws the viewer in during the beginning of act two and once we find ourselves situated, we find that there is a linear conflict en route to a plot driven resolution—very rare in the Rohmer canon—all you want is to know was how it unravels. One would never expect to see a tight narrative like this, where even uncharacteristically (for Rohmer) thinly drawn, black and white archetypal characters take second billing to a well-spun yarn.

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Another Rohmer film where characters stand for different sides of one central argument that Rohmer posits in the beginning, and then they spend the rest of the film debating. 1993’s The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque is about city vs. country, in the frame of a mayor, played by Pascal Greggory, who would possibly like to remove a tree to build a mediatheque. Despite some moments of ennui, the film’s final resolution is quite pleasing if not sentimental, and it’s one of his better films — yet this is strictly for Rohmer addicts.

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Not a high note in the Rohmer collection, for most of its duration, 2007’s The Romance of Astrea & Celadon feels silly, contrived, and has a premise that is difficult to buy into with Andy Gillet and Stéphanie Crayencour’s performances coming across as ridiculous. The entire second half of the film sees the lead actor masquerade as a woman to all of his friends, family and girlfriend, simply by wearing a dress and a little makeup (in the 17th century).

It’s a late morality tale for Rohmer, all about devotion to virtue, but this time it severely lacks in depth with the prime example being the misuse of the period piece. Often, cinephiles take films like this more seriously because of the way the actors speak and the lavish costumes, but it would have been just as trite if it were placed in a contemporary setting. The rumor about The Romance of Astrea & Celadon is that it was Rohmer’s top-secret autobiography, hence why he veiled it in a period piece. Perhaps this was more a case of being too close to the narrative and characters, choosing to have them resemble real life rather than making the right choices to tell the best story. The film is only notable as it is his last, or if you choose to watch it in the frame of a potential autobiography.

Tuesday Aug 31
2:00 Claire’s Knee [Moral Tales]
4:15 Boyfriends and Girlfriends
6:30 A Tale of Winter [Four Seasons]
9:00 Chloe in the Afternoon [Moral Tales]

Wednesday Sep 1
2:00 A Summer’s Tale [Four Seasons]
4:15 Summer [Comedies & Proverbs]

Thursday Sep 2
1:30 Eric Rohmer, Preuves à l’Appui
4:00 Catherine de Heilbronn
6:45 Autumn Tale [Four Seasons]
9:00 Full Moon in Paris [Comedies and Proverbs]

Friday Sep 3
2:00 A Tale of Springtime [Four Seasons]
4:15 A Tale of Winter [Four Seasons]
6:30 A Summer’s Tale [Four Seasons]
8:45 Autumn Tale [Four Seasons]