Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales - Criterion Collection (1971)

The films of Eric Rohmer

$70+ is a good price for this box. It contains six movies: the four most important (Claire's knee, La Collectionneuse, Love in the afternoon and My night at Maud's) and two early shorter ones. Plus a lot of extra material, interviews and so on. The transfer of the four important movies are totally midblowing, especially La Collectionneuse which felt lika a recently filmed movie instead of over 40 years old (it was made in 1967)! (The picture in the two early films is not as good, but this is to be expected considering their age and the conditions under which they were produced, and they are well worth watching as early experiments when Rohmer found his style.)

Rohmers movies are very dialogue-based and contains philosophical reflections, moral dilemmas etc, but never become heavy or abstract, instead they have a delightful charm and are well worth watching several times. Highly recommended! June 23, 2008

Rohmer's Dialogues

The Moral Tales are more intellectual exercises than films. Only My Night at Maud's makes any real effort to establish a running narrative and characters that have definable personalities. Not coincidentally, My Night at Maud's is easily the most famous and acknowledged best of the series. They are all very intelligent but it's easier to pay attention if the director makes a sincere effort to include the audience in the experience.

Rohmer is much more interested in expressing ideas and intellectualizing emotions than in telling stories or character development. That's not necessarily a bad thing but be forewarned, even European movie enthusiasts may find themselves nonplussed by the incessant intellectual discourse and lack of action or character explication. The actors talk and talk and I was far too aware of actors reciting memorized script they didn't always understand rather than acting and engaging the material. Thematically, the longer movies are so flat and static, they may as well be exercises in acting out undergraduate philosophy essays. As if Rohmer is taking a page from Plato and other philosophers who wrote their philosophical insights as discourses.

Rohmer is obviously a smart man and is due credit for refusing to make ordinary movies. However, like many philosophers or "thinkers", he tends to intellectualize trivial details and ordinary thoughts along with the "big questions" and deep insights. Inevitably, through the eight hours of the six tales, the narrative oscillates between banal navel gazing and actual profound insight and revelation. These are not bad movies by any determination but I would caution patience and open mindedness. No robot battles, grumpy animated ogres or fey pirates will be found herein.

Also, as a parting note, I watched these one at a time over a few months and I would highly recommend approaching the tales independently as the inclination strikes you, rather than try to knock them all out in one marathon weekend. March 29, 2008

Another Criterion Gem

Personal narrative in its finest form.

How lucky that, amid such cultural depravity, we have Criterion's oases. January 7, 2008

Essential cinema: Rohmer's 'Contes moraux .'

Éric Rohmer (1920) challenged traditional Hollywood cinema with his French New Wave cycle of films, Six Moral Tales ("Contes moraux"). Inspired by F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, each "tale" follows the same basic story: a man is tempted a woman, but he ultimately resists the temptation.

Exploring the fickle nature of youthful desire, the first of the Moral Tales, The Bakery Girl of Monceau (La Boulangère de Monceau) (1963), is a simple, 23-minute black and white film about a law student (Barbet Schroeder) who--while stuffing himself with sugar cookies and pastries daily--hesitates between two women, a pretty brunette bakery girl and an "unknowable" young woman he has only observed from a distance. Schroeder's voice was dubbed by Bertrand Tavernier.

Suzanne's Career (La Carrière de Suzanne) (1963), a 60-minute short film, continues the cycle with the story of a timid student, Bertrand (Philippe Beuzen), who admires a callous older friend, Guillaume, for his lack of selfconciousness, rude manners, and easy ways with women, until they both fall for the same free-spirited girl, Suzanne (Catherine See), turning this tale into an awkward love triangle. (The first two films in the cycle were shot in ragged black-and-white 16mm photography that offers a strong sense of 1960s Paris.)

My Night at Maud's (Ma nuit chez Maud) (1969)--the third tale in the series, but the fourth to be filmed, has been called "the centerpiece" of Rohmer's Moral Tales. Filmed in stark black and white, it follows deep philosophic conversations about love and religion between a pious Catholic engineer in his early thirties, Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant), and a young brunette divorcée, Maud (Françoise Fabian)--a seductive freethinker who challenges Jean-Louis' rigid ethical standards. An Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival, Rohmer achieved international recognition with this brilliant film.

Set in Saint-Tropez, The Collector (La Collectionneuse) (1967), tells the story of two friends, Adrien (Patrick Bauchau) and Daniel (Daniel Pommereulle), who do their best to resist a promiscuous, bohemian girl, Haydée (Haydée Politoff), who is collecting lovers. Rohmer's first color film in the cycle (filmed by Néstor Almendros) ventures into darker moral territory. This film is transcendent.

Claire's Knee (Le Genou de Claire) (1970) tells the story of a career diplomat, Jerôme (Jean-Claude Brialy), who meets a teenager, Laura, and her beautiful, blonde stepsister, Claire, at a lakeside boardinghouse on the eve of his wedding. While Laura flirts with him, Jerôme is tempted only by Claire's knee on a ladder under a blooming cherry tree. This film reveals how conversation can be the best foreplay.

Love in the Afternoon (L'Amour l'après-midi; also known as Chloe in the Afternoon) (1972) tells the story of a young, successful businessman, Frédéric (Bernard Verley). Although he is happily married to his adoring wife Hélène (Françoise Verley), an English professor, bourgeois Frédéric nevertheless fantasizes about his premarital freedom and the excitement of chasing women. His thoughts are filled with the attractive women who pass him on the streets of Paris every day. When an old flame, Chloé (played by the mesmerizing Zouzou), shows up in Frédéric's office, the two begin spending afternoons together talking. (This film again reveals how conversation can be the best foreplay.) Frédéric experiences a connection with Chloé that threatens his marriage. Chloé confesses that while she is not interested in marriage, she would like to have a child with Frédéric, forcing him to choose between a wife that he loves and a woman he feels strangely passionate about. Before consummating his feelings for Chloé, he retreats to his wife, leaving Chloé in bed waiting for him--perhaps the most powerful emotional moment in Rohmer's entire series.

Rich in subtle human insights and absorbing philosophical questions, Rohmer's sublime Moral Tales are among my all-time favorite films. Criterion's luminous set offers a crisp digital transfer of Nestor Almendros' cinematography, a clear soundtrack, and lots of extras.

G. Merritt July 23, 2007

A magnificent college course in all things Rohmer

Though it retails for a steep $100, intellectual romantic adults will want to own the magnificent Criterion DVD boxed set of ERIC ROHMER'S SIX MORAL TALES. Each film is individually boxed in a slim case, and the whole set comes in an attractive and sturdy bookcase. It is not a viable rental item from, say, Netflicks because you will want to have the entire bookcase contents in front of you at once--see a movie, read the corresponding chapter in a separate 56 page booklet of critical essays on all six essays, maybe read the related pages in a 262 page paperback book with the movies in narrative form because the movies themselves are so hellishly talky that you will miss a lot of the English subtitles, then maybe see the movie a second time. This is a feast for lovers of Eric Rohmer, romantic films, and French movies. Actually, it is nothing less than a semester-long college course in Rohmer's work.

Moral Tale #1 is the 23 minute B&W "THE BAKERY GIRL OF MONCEAU" (1962). The essence of Rohmer is already at work this early--a male narrator infatuated with two different women; Paris locales and a semi-documentary style; 16mm with single takes after a long rehearsal period because of budget limitations; a lot of non-professional actors sometimes playing variations of their real selves and creating their own dialogue; non-stop intelligent conversations in French with exhausting English subtitles. A law student meets a lovely young woman, loses her, befriends a plump and likeable bakery employee, gorges himself on her pastry to be around her, then rather unceremoniously dumps her at the end when the first girl shows up. Incidentally, Monceau is a district of Paris.

Also in B&W and rather short (55 minutes), Moral Tale #2 is "SUZANNE'S CAREER" (1963). This has a lot of plot for less than an hour's length. Two college friends talk endlessly about college and life and love. When one befriends a woman named Suzanne, the other is filled with envy and self-loathing. So the two men compete for Suzanne's attention. Ah, but which man does SHE want, if either?

The remaining four Moral Tales are feature-length and genuine masterpieces of the romantic French cinema: MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S (1969), LA COLLECTIONNEUSE (1967), CLAIRE'S KNEE (1971), and LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (1972 and a.k.a. CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON). They are major Rohmer works that look expensive, but were, again, filmed in 16mm and a 1:33 ratio, composed of single takes with largely non-professional actors, and rented settings. The incomparable head cinematographer (the last three are in glorious color) is Nestor Almendros.

MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S (B&W) was a break-out hit in the United States, the movie that made Eric Rohmer's reputation internationally. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a rigid Catholic and mathmetician who meets blonde Francoise at mass, then brunette Maud in an apartment. He discusses his infatuation for both women with likeable good listener Maud in another Rohmer film with non-stop English subtitles that will have you wishing you knew French to catch all of the thoughtful French dialogue.

LA COLLECTIONNEUSE is probably translated as "The Collector", here meaning a collector of both women and art objects; the soft pastel color is just exquisite. Thank goodness, Rohmer decided to stay with color for the last three Moral Tales which, by the way, do not need to be watched in any particular order. This tale is darker and has two men--an art dealer and his painter friend--basically fighting over the bohemian Haydee in a villa on the Riviera. The script was written by Rohmer and all three actors.

My favorite Moral Tale is CLAIRE'S KNEE which brings us back to one man torn between two, or maybe three, women in a ravishingly beautiful lake and summer house setting. Planning on getting married when he shouldn't, Jerome wonders why he should be torn down to one woman; meanwhile, he meets Laura and Claire. Claire has a boyfriend. In a funny and kinky plot, Jerome likes young Laura a lot, but only cares about teenage Claire's right knee. I adore this film's idyllic summer lake setting in breathtaking color by, again, the great Nestor Almendros.

LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, Moral Tale #6, is also known as CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON, which is its videocassette title and title in Leonard Maltin's Video Guide. Business executive Frederic is happily married to a pregnant and adoring wife named Helene, but is surrounded by beautiful women in his Paris office. One day, an old girl friend named Chloe enters his life and provides the first real threat to his marriage. Should he have a non-committal sexual fling with Chloe and, if so, will Helene take him back. The chain-smoking and egotistical Chloe isn't worth it, Frederic. Stay with your lovely wife. This is a masterpiece.

Accompanying all six Moral Tales in this boxed set are two major bonuses that I mentioned before: a 56 page booklet of critical essays (ideally, you can see a movie, then read the essay about it); and a 262 page paperback book that has all of the tales in narrative form, written by Rohmer two decades before making the movies. Ideally, if you are new to Rohmer's "Conversation Cinema" with grueling non-stop dialogue and subtitles, you might want to read the film in book form, THEN see the movie, THEN read the essay(s) on the movie. Again, this is not a DVD boxed set, it is a full-fledged college course on Eric Rohmer's cinematic universe.

As if you needed more (this is Criterion), you also get several short films Rohmer made in the 1950's while he was editing "Cahier du Cinema"; a 1970's chat with Rohmer for French Canadian TV; a whopping 90 minute chat with director/writer Rohmer and producer Barbet Schroeder on all possible subjects and made expressly in 2006 for this Criterion DVD set; and a 20 minute English-language (thank you, God) video afterward from 2006 with American filmmaker Neil LaBute on why he loves Rohmer and what the cinema of Rohmer means to him.

The stupendous Criterion DVD boxed set, ERIC ROHMER'S SIX MORAL TALES, is not for everyone and will either exhaust or bore his detractors. Maybe you SHOULD rent one or two of them to see if you want to invest an admittedly very expensive $100 on the whole boxed set. But if you already love Rohmer, this DVD set will be your personal nirvana and a crown jewel in your video library. You may or may not want to loan it out to friends to make converts out of non-converts.


February 21, 2007

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