_____________ Alice AndersonRapunzel, 2014 ‘Artist Alice Anderson creates works of art using red doll’s hair. “I’m kind of against fairy tales. The story of a prince and a princess? Ridiculous,” says Anderson. “For me, it’s nonsense. On the other hand, anything to do with childhood, I use.’
____________ Jessica WohlMountainaire Hotel, 2011 ‘In her work Mountainaire Hotel Tennessee-based artist Jessica Wohl covered the stairs of an abandoned Arkansas hotel in synthetic hair. ‘I liked thinking that the building had actually been alive the entire time it was abandoned as if it had been growing hair for the last 20 years.’
_____________ Robert GoberUntitled, 2005 ‘While the cheese wedge itself is made of beeswax, viewers will not find much comfort in knowing that its “hair” is actually human hair.’
_____________ Marlene HaringBecause Every Hair is Different, 2005-09 357 x 252 cm
_____________ Simon SchubertUntitled (Sleeping Woman), 2006 ‘Schubert’s mixed-media sculptures, inspired by the writings of Samuel Beckett, play with the idea of disappearance. His hair works depict women in coffin-like bathtubs or on sterile plinths, completely engulfed by their own hair.’
_____________ Gunnhildur HauksdóttirThe Braid Choir, 2018 ‘The Braidchoir is a series of performance inspired by an image from the Lithuanian artist Egle Rakauskaite, where young women dressed in black stand sternly in a circle facing outwards. They are not actively touching or holding hands as one could assume, only their plaits are fastened together with hair elastics.’
_______________ Hong Chun ZhangVarious, 2004 – 2012 ‘In her continuing series that began in the 2000s, “Long Hair,” she sketches threads of hair with charcoal – also using an eraser to create the shine – to mimic blades of grass. It’s Zhang’s way of drawing parallels between the prairie landscape around her and her personal identity in some works. She hearkened back to the traditional format of Chinese art using scrolls but made the scrolls larger than wall-size; one is 25 feet long.’
Twin Spirits #2, 2013
Three Graces, 2012
Life Strands, 2004
______________ Richard ArtschwagerHair, 1999 – 2002 ‘Artschwager has long specialized in the relationship between perception and deception. This exhibition focuses on a material he has used throughout his career to explore the tactility of the visual experience: rubberized horsehair. These unusual works, produced over a thirty-year period, depart from the crisp lines and sharp forms of his better-known Formica furniture works, blurring the clarity of sculptural form and throwing the object out of focus. They allow for what the artist has called a “perfect imprecision.” A material commonly found in upholstery, rubberized horsehair is typically hidden from view underneath the soft edges of a sofa. Here, Artschwager reverses the relationship between an object and its raw materials, asking the inner-body of an object to become its own surface.’
______________ Liz CraftHairy Guy (with flower basket), 2005 bronze, steel and glass
______________ Unknown Untitled, 1837 – 1901 ‘Hair art has its roots in the 17th and 18th century, when high infant mortality rates meant that “death was everywhere,” writes Karen Bachmann in an essay for the recent book Death: A Graveside Companion. “The keeping and saving of hair for future use in jewelry or other commemorative craft (such as wreaths) was common.” But it wasn’t until the Victorian era that “the ‘cult of the dead’ became almost a mania in Britain.” This was spurred by Queen Victoria herself, who ruled the British Empire from 1837 until her death in 1901. “In 1861, her beloved husband, Prince Consort Albert, died, upon which the Queen entered into a state of formal mourning that lasted the rest of her life,” Joanna Ebenstein, founder of New York’s Morbid Anatomy Museum and editor of Death: A Graveside Companion, told Artsy. “This encouraged a fashion for mourning in popular culture on both sides of the Atlantic that lingered until the turn of the 20th century.”’
______________ Paul HazeltonBody Hair: Existention, 2013 ‘Created from geometrically woven human hair, ‘Body Hair’ is a work that continues my interest in creating three-dimensional drawing using, in this case, a geometric pattern first observed in a simpler form in 1980 during a sunset over the sea in Margate. When I drew the pattern later that evening I had inadvertently drawn the proportions of a human form.’
_______________ Janine AntoniLoving Care, 1993 ‘The artist soaked her hair in hair dye and mopped the floor with it.’
_______________ CABULA6HAIR, 2011 ‘CABULA6 puts on HAIR – a 21st century rendition of the 1960s breakout rock musical. In a four day around-the-clock performance, the hair from hundreds of people living in Vienna will be woven into a one-of-a-kind Vienna Wig. From the 6th – 9th July, premier hair stylists from around the city will offer free haircuts and create a wig – unlike anything ever seen before – right in front of the audiences’ eyes made from the HAIR ON THEIR HEADS and transformed into a work of Art. Once made, the wig will begin to live its own life as it travels to major museums around the world. The installation begins and ends with a performance.’
_______________ Enrique MartyEstoy en un momento muy delicado, 2012 Mixed media
_____________ Cynthia LahtiBlack Hair One, 2012 crumpled paper
____________ Nina BeierVarious, 2016 Real hair wig, painted frames
_____________ Tunga Xifópagas Capilares, 1984 black and white photograph
_____________ Kayode OjoOverdressed (Green), 2020 ‘Many of his sculptures, like Overdressed (Green), feature swishy postures and flamboyant materials that might easily be read as “queer.” In turn, rather than confirm some sort of ontological essence embodied by his work — which merely waits for the logician properly attuned to its coded iconography — Ojo reveals the dialogical construction and desirous fantasy that always define these sorts of assignations.’
______________ Nick CaveHair Brush, 1999 Wood, metal, and hair
______________ Mike KelleyDouble Figure (Hairy), 1990 Sculpture, Found stuffed animals
_____________ Annette MessagerDanse du Scalp, 2009 Kinetic installation
_____________ Hayden ZezulaUntitled, 2016 ‘Hair is incredibly hard to animate, and rendering it realistically is still relatively rare, even in Hollywood. These intensely emotional walking, crawling, and dancing characters are his first experiment with the texture, blazing the path tread by Universal Everything’s walking man animations in his signature Zolloc style. Loops like these would have represented hours of rendering with his old toys, but now he can build them with a powerful rendering software called Octane in mintues.’
_____________ Brenda JansoneStigma Under the Dermis – Antons and Rasa, 2021 ‘(1) A neighbors fragment of leg, and a friends elbow made in silicone. His “64” and hers shell tattoo replaced with human hair in the same pattern. (2) A neighbors fragment of ribs made in silicone. His shovel tattoo replaced with human hair in the same pattern. The series consists of flesh-like silicone pieces casted from the members of living models, with tattoo ink replaced by manually implanted human hair, thereby maintaining a hyperrealist similarity with the original. Through skin, hair and tattoo this show explores a certain attitude towards the human body and the stigmas that surround it.’
_____________ Nathaniel MellorsHippy Dialectics (Ourhouse), 2010 ‘A spotlighted animatronic sculpture of two robotic heads. Delivering a looped dialogue, this lifelike two-headed monster (one fleshy and one blue, with a swath of hair connecting them) is simultaneously humorous and marginally disturbing as it shakes and wobbles out a dialogue.’
_____________ Nelson LoskampThe Electric Chaircut, 2013 -> ‘The Electric Chaircut is an interactive, electro-sonic, hair cut performance. Volunteers request what they would like and are taped to my chair. Their eyes and mouth are taped closed to symbolize our fetishism of appearance. I cut the hair with various implements, all amplified. Scissors and clippers wired to effects pedals, slung round my waist, are blasted through an amplifier strapped to my back. I whack at the hair in a seemingly random pattern and a cacophony of trance like sounds play to the audience. When I am finished I peel away the tape and show them the new look I have created.’
*
p.s. Hey. I’m just back in Paris. And pretty jet lagged, so warning that this p.s. might have a lot of lapses. The blog will now return to functioning normally for the next two weeks. Then I’ll go back to SoCal to finish the preparations and shoot the film. I’m not yet sure how the blog will operate during that period, but I’ll let you know when we’re close to the time. The past week was very productive but, unfortunately, again not that exciting to hear about. We’re in the middle of looking for secondary locations, housing for the cast and crew, people in the area of the shoot to play the small roles and be extras, etc. Here’s a couple of photos from the meet and greet dinner we had for the main cast members a few nights go. And here’s an unadorned photo of the house where we’ll be shooting about 85% of the film. If you have any questions or anything, feel free. Okay, onwards. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. Indeed, and in agreement! ** Sypha, Hey, James. Thanks. It’s cold here in the big P too, but not that cold. I picked up ‘The Shards’ while I was in LA, but I didn’t have any time to read it, but I’m about to start. Excited. ** Cody Goodnight, Hi, Cody! Thanks a lot, man. ‘La Rayon Vert’ is my favorite Rohmer, and one of my favorite films period. There are a lot fantastic films by him. Um, ‘Claire’s Knee’ is great among the early ones. I really like ‘Pauline at the Beach’. ‘Perceval le Gallois’ is his weirdest film, and a lot of Rohmer aficionados don’t like it, but I’m kind of crazy about it. Awesome about the quality of the TV class. It sounds really interesting. I don’t suppose your school has a camera you can use/borrow and just go shoot whatever you want? To me, ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘Wednesday’ were only kind of okay and doable, but I have yet to see a TV series that people are raving about that doesn’t just seem maybe slightly more interesting than usual at most. They all just have this conventional, mainstream core with stylish mini-flourishes, and I’m just not interested n that kind of stuff. I like that Ottinger film a lot too. I think my fave Jarman is ‘The Last of England’. Anyway, nice viewing there. How was the rest of your week? I look forward to gradually de-jet lagging and then finding what’s around du jour. ** shadeoutMapes🍄, Hi, pal, I’m good, how are you? Oh, wait, you were in a roller coaster, but a quiet one at least? When I have a particularly great day, I try to believe it’ll have an afterglow and then imagine whatever happens next is glowing, and that kind of helps? And then there’s always philosophy, yeah. What are you reading? I do agree it’s good to have friends like that and that, yeah, they can be kind of annoying. Spaghetti-Os! I didn’t know they still put pasta in a can. Yikes. But now I want some. Well, when I was in high school the whole Vietnam War was going on, so ROTC seemed particularly egregious, particularly since I was doing everything possible not to get drafted. Basically, they just seemed like weird nerdy jocks, and most people thought they were harmless and amusing. Someone was just telling me about some film from a cat’s perspective that was really good. No, wait, it was a cat perspective video game. I can’t remember the name. I think I’m not very physically demonstrative. I mean I hug people, and I mean it, but I think I’m kind of behaviourally reserved. I think I tend to let my face and eyes do most of the hugging for me. But, yeah, being hugged is awfully nice. Cool. How are you doing now? ** CAUTIVOS, Hi. The famous saying I know of is that watching a Rohmer film is like watching paint dry. Hugs back. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben! ‘Claire’s Knee’ is lovely. Just settle in for it as his films are (wonderfully) slow going. Has Leeds hired their new manager yet? Are you ok with the choice, if so? I am curious to see ‘M3GAN’, and I’ll see Gisele this week, and I’ll ask her. I’m sure she’ll have a strong opinion about it. ** NLK, Hey! Oh, cool, on the timing. ‘The Green Ray’ is my favorite, but I love most of this films. Passion rules. We’re currently hiring people to work on our new film, and the passion of prospective people is probably the biggest reason for them getting hired. That is a weird and kind of exciting-to-think about high school memory, for sure. There are people who write greatly without revising, but I think they’re 1 in a million. Besides, revising is the most exciting part. But I don’t know you convince someone that, by not editing, they’re really missing out. Hm. Me … I was headlong into the film stuff, and now I’m going to try to chill and enjoy Paris, although still have tons to do even here. There’s a show at the Pompidou about the 1970s No Wave scene/movement — ‘Who You Staring At?’ — that I really want to see. I’d go today but we’re having a huge transport strike today, and it’s a bit too far of a walk. I almost never remember my dreams. They vanish upon my awakening. So, no. But, when I do, they’re always about me trying to get away from someone or something who wants to kill me, so it’s probably good that they vanish. What about you? ** Meg Gluth, Hi, Meg!! I’m so sorry about all the death. Hugs from relatively death-free (knock on wood) me. A visit, sure. Well, we’ll be doing rehearsals and prep in LA starting on the 25th through early March, and then we’ll be out in Yucca Valley to shoot the film. At the moment, the film starts shooting on March 20th and runs through April 20th. You can visit whenever. Just let me know in advance, and we can either meet in LA, or I can tell you the film shoot coordinates. Take care, pal. ** Dominik, Hi!!!! I’m back for a bit, so we can actually have a non-broken up conversation again. One of the little kids, ‘Tomas’, a scared kid who goes through the haunted house, was cast. If you hit the link to the photos up there, you’ll see little him standing beside giant me. There’s a 6 year-old girl who’s perfect to play the daughter. That’s great, but it’s also problem because, like the character, she’s wild and eccentric and very moody. It would be a lot of work and time to get a performance from her, and I don’t know if we can afford that given our tight shooting schedule. I think Zac and our Assistant Director are going to see her again and make the decision. We still have positions to fill, and ideally Zac, with me on Zoom will fill them before I go back. But it was good there, very good. How are you? What’s going on? Love replacing my jet lag with a sparkling personality, G. ** alex, Howdy, alex. Wow, a very, very early happy b’day. My guess is we’ll probably need an extra day or two to finish the film, but I’ll try to remember to wolf down a Twinkie or something on the 20th on your behalf. No, I’ve never read the novelized versions. I don’t think I knew they existed? Huh. You recommend them, yes? Maybe I’ll try ‘La Collectioneuse’ and see what happens. Great that you’re writing! Did you finish the first chapter? That’s fantastic news! I envy you. Pressure can be good, for sure. I’m going to try to squeeze in some fiction writing in the next two weeks because it’ll be months before I have another chance. I wish us both luck! ** Steve Erickson, Hi. We took them out to dinner at this very old school Mexican restaurant in Silverlake called Casita Del Campo. We still need to cast the daughter among the big roles. There are some smaller roles still to cast, and we’re going to try to cast them near the location since our housing funds are limited. How did the physical therapy session go? Ultra-well, I hope. I’m so sorry about the troubled visit. It’s so hard and complicated when your parents reach that point where oldness starts to manifest. I’m glad you’re back safe and sound. ** Ian, Hey, Ian. Hugely enjoy Mexico! That sounds dreamy. Film stuff is going well. There’s just so much to do, but it’s getting done. So, what are you doing down there, or what are your particularly favorite goings-on so far? ** h now j, Thanks, buddy! When we’re shooting in the desert, we’ll have some wild animal time too, but, in our case, probably mostly with unfriendly snakes, ha ha. Enjoy your remaining nature-y time. ** T, Hi, T! Hard to tell about the jet lag. It’s not too hideous so far. Do you have any interest in going to see the No Wave show at the Pompidou? I really want to go. Want to go with? I don’t know Ephemeron Loop, but I’m almost sure I know or at least knew Guttersnipe. I’ll get my ears around that track, thanks! I hope to see you soon, maybe for the Pompidou thing? Let me know what’s good. xo, me. ** Damien Arkfeld, Hi! This woman named Tea who lives in Joshua Tree and is playing a small role in our film says there’s a really vital queer performance scene out there, but I haven’t investigated it yet. The weather out there was pretty easy and solid. We’re hoping it won’t be too hot yet when when shoot in March/April. The specific area where we’re shooting is called Flamingo Heights. Fuck knows why because it’s in the middle of waterless nowhere, and there are definitely no flamingos there. Yes, okay, I’ll do a post about Czech film or a Czech filmmaker ASAP. Lovely to see you! ** Robert, Hi, Robert. It could be argued, by me, that chugging along with writing is as exciting as it gets. But I’m an introvert. Anyway, that’s great news! And making everything everything else take a back seat to writing is my utopia spot. So, yeah, huge agreement. As I was telling someone else, we have one kid cast (see: photo link above) and a strong, maybe too strong, candidate for the other kid role. We’re close. Enjoy writing, and please pass along any pleasure or intrigue points thereof if you like. ** Nick., Hi, Nick.! I’m good, jet lagged, but good. My last week wasn’t very wild, sadly, but I guess I would say either almost stepping on a rattlesnake in the yard of the house location where well be shooting the film, or the fact that Ron and Russell Mael aka the band Sparks were sitting in First Class on my flight back and looking very, very hair-dyed. Your week wins on all fronts, I think it’s safe to say. Maybe especially the mushroom chocolate. You made it home ok, ha ha? Yay about the secret projects. Even in their vagueness, I’m excited for you. Collaborating is the best. Wildest party? Hm. I kind of hate parties because I’m kind of a wallflower type, so I tend to avoid them. I remember a long time ago being on acid at a party, and everything seeming sort of boring, and then going off into some lengthy hallucination, and then waking from that to discover that the blah party had turned into this huge, moaning, groaning orgy. That juxtaposition was pretty interesting. Yeah, I agree that peaceful feeling can be very scary, but imagining life without those situations is scarier. Did you get your stamp, split, go to the party whereupon you partied fascinatingly? Happy weekend of continuing or recovering! ** Caesar, Hi, C. My week was very full of work, but good. Big condolences on the heat. I hate hot weather more than almost anything on earth. I’m sorry about your fight. Oh, man, losing a friend sucks. I hope either that gets repaired or you end up happier moving forward without him. I forgot about Valentines Day. I’m not sure how to celebrate it, but I’ll figure something out. Mm, I honestly disliked everything about ‘TÁR’. I cant think of a single thing about it that I liked. Congrats on being back to work and getting to refill your books supply. No, I didn’t see ‘Spencer’. I’ll find it. I did see Kristin Stewart in a movie on my plane flight yesterday where she played Snow White, I can’t remember the name. Charlize Theron was in it playing playing an evil queen. It passed the time, and that was about it. Good seeing you. ** Right. In the rare downtime periods during my period in LA I made this post for you for some reason. See you on Monday.
‘French director Eric Rohmer told Barbet Schroeder in a 2006 interview, “In many films, people never discuss ideas, be they moral or political. And when those kinds of discussions are introduced, it often sounds false. What I’ve tried to do—and this is what I’m happiest with in my films—[is to] show people discussing morality, whatever that might mean, in a completely natural way.” Sometimes these discussions are abstract and philosophical (Jean-Louis Trintignant, his prospective mistress, and a friend debating Pascal over dinner in My Night at Maud’s) and sometimes they’re distinctly earthbound (the two dandies in La Collectionneuse taunting the indifferent object of their desire by calling her a slut). But it only takes a minute of hearing and seeing one of these conversations to know you’re in Rohmer-world, an enchanted and yet peculiarly unsentimental place in which both words and actions, minds and bodies, matter absolutely.
‘Philosopher Gerard Legrand wrote that “Rohmer is constantly inviting you to be intelligent …. In fact, more intelligent than his characters.” The first part of that statement is impeccably observed: A Rohmer movie doesn’t clobber you with its smarts; it generously furnishes you a space in which to think for yourself. But Legrand’s suggestion that, as part of this transaction, the viewer is invited to feel smarter than the characters seems to me imprecise and insufficiently appreciative of Rohmer’s artistry. As we watch Jerome (Jean-Claude Brialy), the self-deluded hero of Claire’s Knee, place his impending marriage in peril by blundering into all manner of erotic monkeyshines, we feel no smarter than he is. We don’t regard him with contempt or pity. We may feel wiser than Jerome, by moments, and certainly we laugh at his subterfuges, but we know all the while that our sense of superiority is itself a delusion—that the minute we leave the theater, we’re liable to lay eyes on an enticing knee that provokes us to behave just as foolishly. To find other artists besides Rohmer who can see this deeply into a character’s humanity and make us love him anyway—that is to say, who can ironize with this degree of gentleness—you have to reach up to a pretty high shelf: Shakespeare? Tolstoy?
‘Rohmer made films that were innovative but not iconoclastic—and never “revolutionary” in the Marxist sense of early Godard. They belong to a tradition of French philosophy and literature going back to Pascal, Marivaux, and Stendhal, in which free-thinking, solitude-loving heroes and heroines are caught in conflicts between the exigencies of law and reason and the demands of the heart. If Rohmer sometimes said, “Action” before he said, “Camera,” it wasn’t because he cared more about what the actors were doing than the fact they were being filmed. It was because he was trying to achieve a precise cinematic effect, that heightened not-quite-naturalism all his own; not a documentary-style “slice of life” but a privileged form of eavesdropping.
‘The beautiful people in Rohmer movies may be entranced with the sound of their own and one another’s voices, but they also speak with their bodies: Fabrice Luchini awkwardly navigating the dance floor in Full Moon in Paris, the principals of Pauline at the Beach using windsurfing lessons as a courtship ritual, and of course the protagonist in Claire’s Knee groping for that irresistible kneecap. The character’s movements and gestures are every bit as important as what they say, and as often as not, the gestures undo the words. “The reason I don’t like a close-up,” Rohmer explained, “is because it excludes. It doesn’t add, it takes away. It suppresses the relationship of the character to the set.” Rohmer didn’t draw any metaphorical conclusions about the significance of his preference for long shots over close-ups, but I’ll permit myself the liberty of hazarding one: If he preferred to keep his camera at a distance, it was because, physically as well as spiritually, he saw his characters as irreducibly whole.’ — Dana Stevens, Slate
‘Raymond Carver titled one of his most famous short stories “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”. I am prepared to argue that no artist in any medium, not just cinema, explored the subject of romantic love as thoroughly as Rohmer — although it takes a certain amount of life experience to appreciate the depth of his accomplishment. I initially saw most of Rohmer’s films when I was in my early twenties and, save for the Moral Tales (his most well-known work), I hadn’t bothered to revisit his filmography until now — at the age of 38. After recently watching all of his movies in the span of less than a month, I now understand and appreciate his artistry in a way that I never had before. While I always considered myself an admirer of his “official masterpieces” (the later Moral Tales and certain key films in his other two prominent cycles: “Comedies and Proverbs” and “The Tales of the Four Seasons”), some of his films struck me as dull or even annoying, mainly because I found the characters annoying — without realizing that this was fully Rohmer’s intention. See, for example, the last segment of 1995’s Rendezvous in Paris, a hilarious satire of “mansplaining” (before the term even existed). But the most important revelation I’ve had about Rohmer is the realization that his special genius lay in his illustration of how the vast majority of human desires remain unfulfilled — the drama of his scenarios arises from the tension between what his characters want and their refusal/inability to attain it. Rohmer knew that eros has a way of making one talk, act and think differently, and this is what his camera documented with the precision of a microscope. And I’m not just referring to the kind of strong desires that make us want to sleep with person X or try to make person Y our significant other; he showed how eros can make one act just the tiniest degree nicer to a person to whom one is attracted, even when — or perhaps especially when — one feels that nothing may come of it.
From The Sign of Leo in 1959 to The Romance of Astrea and Celadon nearly a half of a century later, Rohmer showed a remarkable consistency in terms of his stylistic and thematic preoccupations. Sometimes he came in for criticism for it but Rohmer really did tend to make the same movie over and over again, sometimes with only minor — though crucial — variations in the characters and settings (something that can’t really be said about his compatriots in the nouvelle vague). The conventional wisdom, at least in certain mainstream cinephile circles, is that Rohmer was a kind of French Woody Allen: an intellectual who wrote and directed “talky” (i.e., dialogue-heavy and “uncinematic”) romantic comedies about upper class characters for upper class audiences. But far from being the cinematic equivalent of “watching paint dry,” to quote the famous putdown by Gene Hackman’s detective character in Arthur Penn’s Night Moves (1975), Rohmer’s films are both more exquisitely cinematic than his detractors give him credit for while also keeping more of a critical distance from their protagonists than many of his supporters are willing to admit. (Having said that, I can’t quite go along with the assertion of critic Gilbert Adair that Rohmer’s characters “are among the most foolish, ineffectual and pathetic milquetoasts ever to have graced a cinema screen, [and] that, on a generous estimate, 90% of the celebrated talk is sheer, unadulterated twaddle” — even if Adair meant that as a compliment!)
‘As far as Rohmer’s too-little-remarked-upon visual mastery is concerned, its virtues lie in the most discreet aspects of mise-en-scene. Yes, his films are about people talking, oftentimes in a self-deceptive fashion that is humorous for the way it rings of psychological truth, but there is often a poignant discrepancy between what his dialogue tells and what his camera shows. I would argue this is dialogue that would not add up to much on the page or even the stage. It does, however, come spectacularly alive on the cinema screen because of its very specific real-world context. In other words, the things that matter most in Rohmer’s movies are the material facts of where and when his characters do their talking — character and environment are inseparable. The main interest in watching Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987), for instance, stems not from the romantic musical-chairs plot but rather from the way this plot unfolds against the backdrop of the horrific modern “architecture” of the pre-fabricated Parisian suburb known as Cergy Pontoise. And even more important than locations in Rohmer are the seasons, the time of day and the weather (“My films are slaves to weather,” he pronounced in one interview): has the particular color of summer sunlight ever registered so vividly as in Nestor Almendros’ photography of the French Riviera in La Collectionneuse (1967)? Is it possible to watch Jean-Luis Trintignant attend midnight mass at Christmastime in the black-and-white My Night at Maud’s (1969) and not feel the coldness in one’s bones? In Rohmer’s last masterpiece, 1998’s An Autumn Tale, what sticks with one the most about the beautiful character study is the sense of what it’s like to walk among the vineyards in the Rhone wine-region of France on a perfect fall day. But Rohmer knew a thing or two about interiors too. Check out Claire’s Knee, in which Aurora, a 30-something female novelist, wears matronly dresses with floral patterns that subtly link her to the wallpaper around her (and thus the concept of domesticity), in pointed contrast to the teenaged and bare-kneed Claire (who is repeatedly associated with the outdoors).’ — White City Cinema
Eric Rohmer in Jacques Rivette’s ‘Out 1’ (w/ subtitles)
Parlons Cinéma Eric Rohmer (1977)
Eric Rohmer – Les Metamorphoses du paysage (1964)
The Moral Cinema of Eric Rohmer
_____ Interview from Cahiers du cinema
CAHIERS: Let’s begin with a point that could appear secondary to you: since our last interview (1965), your two films: La collectionneuse and Ma nuit chez Maud, have known a certain level of success, both critically and with the public. Has this success led you to rethink the principal of the “moral tale”, or your relationship to the public and to the cinema?
ROHMER: I told myself that success would come some time or another. Has it changed anything with regards to my intentions? No. I always knew that I would make the later moral tales with more significant means than the earlier ones because the subjects demanded it. They demanded older characters, and it is easier to find 20 year-old amateur actors than 30- or 40 year-old ones. Now, if neither La collectionneuse nor Ma nuit chez Maud had met with success, this would likely have sounded the death knell for the “Moral Tales”.
CAHIERS: You say that this success changes nothing about the general plan of the “Moral Tales”. So was this success also programmed by you? For it is a new objective factor which would interfere with your plan in an objective manner.
ROHMER: No, I didn’t programme it, I hoped it would happen, in as much as, financially, it permitted me to continue the “Moral Tales”. I believed in a snowball effect: that with the success of the first, I could make the second, then the third and so on. I gambled on winning.
CAHIERS: Every success depends on a reading [lecture]; do you think that, in your case, this reading was adequate to what the films represented for you?
ROHMER: Listen, I don’t know. When you don’t have success, you can glorify the fact, when you do have success, you can glorify it as well. Or, inversely, you can complain about having too much success, or none at all. Yes, my success frightens me a little: after having been on the outer with relation to the cinema, after having made films almost in conditions of banditry, outside the laws of filmmaking and the customs of film technicians, now I have been admitted, I have been welcomed. This could be dangerous, in as much as success is always heady. Fortunately this isn’t the case at the moment, as I had already thought out my “Moral Tales” and my manner of shooting them hasn’t changed. The proof is that my next film will be no more expensive than the earlier ones, although it could have been. When you have a bit of success, you tend to think that success isn’t such a bad thing, and when you don’t have any success, you tend to think that success doesn’t prove anything. Both perspectives are true, I think. An author is more or less attuned with the present times; there are some who are always with the times, with all that this implies in terms of imperfection, as you can’t always be with the times. It’s not normal for a creator to be with the times when people receive his work; he must be a bit ahead of the times. So, you’re a little bit ahead of people, but they end up catching up to you. And they’re very quick. We’re no longer in the days of Stendhal, who speculated on being received in a hundred years time.
CAHIERS: But do you think that the response of critics and that of the public correspond to what these films represent?
ROHMER: I think I’ve been better understood, better received, by the public rather than the critics. I have the impression that the public was touched in a more original way, while the response of critics seemed more banal to me.
CAHIERS: On what basis do you think the public has been able to respond to the film better than the critics?
ROHMER: Nothing. Except for the fact that if people went to see the film, there must have been good word of mouth about it. I don’t think the critical response was enough to guarantee this, as this year it has been hyperbolic about films that flopped. All the more so, because there were elements in Ma nuit chez Maud which were, on the face of it, objectionable: the Catholic element, the long conversations, the fact that it was in black and white. The advertising campaign didn’t really contribute, either. I told the UGC [a French cinema distributor] to do it very discreetly. So the film’s success was purely due to word of mouth. Now, what were people’s reactions? I don’t know anything. I didn’t receive any letters, except one or two.
CAHIERS: We weren’t speaking of success as a fact, but of its nature. There is, all the same, a continuity between the reception of the public and that of the critics: the emphasis on the “intelligence of the characters”, “the profundity of the themes treated”…
ROHMER: Of course, but I read all that just like you did and I am able to interpret it even less than you can.
CAHIERS: For example, the film yielded a commentary which can be summarised thus: “as opposed to all these ‘modern’ movies, here is a film which, far from showing us gibbering morons – like Godard does for example – presents us with intelligent characters, debating extremely elevated problems, and what’s more: in the provinces, and in a text which is very coherent, cultivated, logically articulated”. Which comes back to attributing the film with the intelligence of the characters’ discourses, to take the discourse proffered in the film for the discourse of the film itself. Now, it seems to us that there is a confusion here: the interest in the film is situated in the articulations between the different discourses expressed in the film, more than these discourses themselves.
ROHMER: Your point of view – and this is normal – is more refined and more profound than that of most spectators. But every text, it seems to me, allows for two readings: an immediate reading and a reading between the lines, resulting from a deepened reflection, with reference to aesthetic theories. But I don’t think that this simplistic interpretation is worth less than the second. I always thought, even when I was a critic, that the brutal and simplistic reaction of the spectator is a good thing. I know that back then in Cahiers, we praised very commercial films in trying to defend them from a point of view that was not that of the man on the street. But this point of view doesn’t bother me. If people want to take things literally in the film, things that I myself may not take literally, I don’t say that this goes against its meaning, I say that it’s a more unsophisticated way of receiving the film, that’s all. I absolutely take on board every interpretation. That doesn’t mean I have to accept them, but once I finish a film, it escapes me, it closes itself off from me, and I can’t enter it any more. It’s up to the public to penetrate through whichever door they wish. I am not speaking about critics, who claim to have found the key, the right key, the only one which opens the big entrance gate. But that’s not my problem any more, thank God. I am not looking for the keys to Hitchcock any more, like I used to.
CAHIERS: Ma nuit chez Maud has certain things in common with Hitchcock: the spectator’s point of view is not put into question, but with this point of view, we can take into account how these films really function.
ROHMER: No, it’s a little different. This attitude which consists in looking for the meaning of the film beyond what is most evidently there (although Douchet has succeeded in coming to grips with what is most evident about Hitchcock: suspense), I think it was more valid for the American cinema, for films with a mass audience, but that it’s no longer justifiable nowadays. I would like there to be the shortest distance between the public’s interpretation (is it that naive? I doubt it) and that of the critics. I write films which should be, above all, tasted, felt, not so as to give rise to an intellectual reflection, but so that they touch people. A Chaplin film, even if you can make a highly developed reflection as to its subject matter, has to make people laugh, otherwise it’s a failure.
CAHIERS: With Chaplin or Hitchcock, what’s more immediate is their pleasurable aspect. Reflection can be secondary. But as for Ma nuit chez Maud, the reflections that the characters make produce and legitimise the spectator’s pleasure, delighted to see characters think in their stead.
ROHMER: Let’s say that at this point in the history of the cinema and the public, only a film which incites a certain reflection can be touching. There are subjects which could be touching in earlier times, such as melodramatic subjects, which don’t touch anyone anymore, so you need to delve into the characters more. But I have trouble seeing what the public could have misinterpreted.
CAHIERS: It seems that for Ma nuit chez Maud there wasn’t a gap between the point of view of the public and that of the critics to the same extent that there was for the films of Hitchcock, for example. Because, what is the entertainment value of a film like Ma nuit chez Maud, the equivalent of spectacle in a Hitchcock film, or of laughter in a Chaplin film? It’s reflection: it’s a film whose entertainment value is of a reflective type.
ROHMER: Certainly. But I think that there is also reflection in a detective novel, in the form of logical, even mathematical, considerations, explicit or not. And even in the comic film, there is a subjacent logical exposition.
CAHIERS: In Ma nuit chez Maud, the reflexive part, based on elements of intelligence, of discourse, was more important than is ordinarily the case, in as much as pleasure and pleasure of reflection are more directly linked than in a comic film, for example.
ROHMER: Certainly. But it’s a difference of degree and not a difference of nature: in all pleasure there is an element of reflection and we must hope that in all reflection there is an element of pleasure. I think that a work of art is made for the purpose of pleasure, and also for the purpose of reflection. I have always refused the distinction between art as entertainment and art as reflection. After all, we can reflect on Johnny Halliday and find an immediate pleasure in Beethoven. For me, this distinction is a flawed way of thinking…
What retains your interest in this film is the fact that my characters have a discourse to give, while in the majority of films, this is absent. Note that in general, I have always had misgivings about discursive films. But you are often attracted by things which seem the most unattractive and the most perilous to you. My idea was precisely to integrate a discourse into the film and to avoid the film being at the service of the discourse, at the service of the thesis. But throughout history, starting with the Greeks, discourse has been very important in the theatre. The Greek theatre was composed of maxims, of moral reflection, which didn’t prevent it from being real theatre.
CAHIERS: In Ma nuit chez Maud, what permitted people to take pleasure from the film was, more than a real or new reflection, “the idea of reflection”, reflection in quotation marks. That is to say, the role that maxims played in the Greek theatre in terms of cultural discourse, already well-known, labelled as being propitious to reflection. In Ma nuit chez Maud, a subject matter squarely designated as being intellectual serves to procure pleasure. Whence the risk of miscomprehension we spoke about at the beginning, miscomprehension coming from the fact that the spectator had a tendency to consider you, as the author of the film, as being on the same level as the discourses proffered in the film, when, it seems to us, the film is somewhere else, between these discourses, it plays with these discourses, plays on these discourses.
ROHMER: What you’re doing now is criticism, and I find it very interesting, by the way. I even subscribe to it in a certain fashion: of all the things that one could say about the film, it’s one of the most perspicacious. But then what’s the point of me being here. My position with relation to the film has no importance. Probably because you know that I was a critic, you’re trying to make me be a critic for my own film, something I absolutely refuse and of which I am, in any case, incapable.
CAHIERS: Let’s say that there is an ambiguity which is attached to the notion of the “moral tale”, the title functioning like a signal: “attention, serious thought!”.
ROHMER: If there is an ambiguity, it is in the moral tale. There are subjects, “sentimental” subjects, which can only be interpreted in a certain manner, while in my subject, there is a fundamental ambiguity in as much as one doesn’t know who is right and who is wrong, if it’s happy or if it’s sad. This comes from the fact that the cinema has evolved and that it is less unsophisticated, less naive than before.
CAHIERS: We’re not trying to say that the public has committed a misinterpretation. But this reading we spoke about can constitute a limitation of the meaning and above all, prevent seeing how this meaning is produced, and that other meanings are masked.
ROHMER: There is necessarily a limitation of the meaning. It is impossible to fully take account of any kind of work, even the most facile ones: there are always different meanings according to the different temperaments of those who receive the work. This seems normal to me and is not particular to my film.
CAHIERS: For a very long time, the idea was nurtured that the work offered itself to as many readings as there are spectators. For too long the myth was accredited according to which each spectator received a film in a unique and singular manner. In fact, when we speak of a film, with its spectators, we see very well that for each film there is a very limited number of possible readings, with gaps between them, and that these readings are all determined, and not only by the film.
ROHMER: There are a limited number of readings – at any given time. But let’s take films which endure, look at the different ways in which we could speak about Griffith or Renoir, you’ll notice that it’s very varied… As for the “Moral Tales”, I told you that they were films which could be composed by a computer….
CAHIERS: But the computer itself is programmed…
ROHMER: But the programme is extremely simple. Starting with two single words: “moral”, “tale”, you can draw out a lot of things. But I still don’t see what I could say to you that would be interesting, apart from banalities, or to recount the film in a different way. Ask me some more precise questions.
CAHIERS: Isn’t it the case that what underlies all your “Moral Tales” could be boiled down to four words which we give here in no particular order: space, time, chance, predestination (with all the Christian connotations that this entails: grace, etc.)?
ROHMER: They are indeed words which are in the computer program. They are there of necessity, because in every fiction, in every work of cinema, there is on the one hand the idea of destiny (as a way of seeing an event) and predestination (the magical side of this destiny), and on the other hand there is space and time. So they’re in my program… as a minimum program for every fiction.
CAHIERS: You said just then that you had wagered on having success in the 1970s. So did you think that your two last films coincided more particularly with this moment…
ROHMER: You want to make a prophet out of me, which I’m not in the slightest. It was just a hope. When I undertook my “Tales” – Comolli remembers this very well – I declared, “Long live 16mm!”, out of provocation and necessity more than out of deep conviction. It was evident that 16mm presented great inconveniences on a technical level. This was back in 1962: things have slightly improved since then. All the same, I had intended to shot La collectionneuse in 16mm for a while, but Nestor [Almendros, camera operator for the film] advised me against it and convinced me that Eastmancolor was far superior to 16mm and not that much more expensive. So I shot it in 35mm. The same with Ma nuit chez Maud: I tried to see if we could do it with amateurs but I renounced the idea of finding people capable of filling the roles. With the next film, I’m going to shoot it “professionally”. But with the sixth “Moral Tale”, it is very possible that, all of a sudden, I could find it more interesting to do it in 16mm with amateurs. I don’t feel constrained by success, and, after the “Moral Tales” I have no idea what I’m going to do. I don’t even consider myself to be a filmmaker by trade.
Ma nuit chez Maud is a subject that I carried around inside me since 1945. Since then, it has undergone enormous modifications. A character locked up with a woman by an exterior circumstance was the primary dramatic idea. But back then it was about the curfew, during the war, and not snow.
CAHIERS: Did the fact that he got caught by the snow rather than a curfew during the war lead to other modifications?
ROHMER: For me, the snow represented the passage from “tale” to mise en scène. Snow is very cinematographically important for me. In the cinema, it makes the situation stronger, more universal than the external, historical circumstance of the occupation.
CAHIERS: Do you think that in relation to the general structure of the “Moral Tale”, snow has a fictional role equivalent to that of the occupation?
ROHMER: Given the subject, yes. Because the subject, such as I had thought of it, had no deep relationship with the occupation; that is, the conflict between the French and the Germans. You remember the Eluard poem: “It was late / Night had fallen / We fell in love with each other” and so on. Maybe this was what gave me the idea?
CAHIERS: Isn’t the real problem in the very notion of the “moral tale”, between a certain eternal aspect of an abstract schema and its obligatory and precise articulation with and insertion into History?
ROHMER: It’s not in “History”, it’s just in the current world, in the world to be filmed, and so there’s no issue. Up till now, and this is linked to the realism of my project, I always liked to film in the present day. If I film in Saint-Tropez, it’s not the same thing as filming in the fogs of the Baltic. If I shoot in 1970, the period will affirm itself in a certain manner, without the need for me to seek it out, by the way: I can take it because it’s there. At the same time, I avoid showing things which go out of fashion too much. Indeed, in La collectionneuse, there is a rather pronounced “fashionable” aspect, but I made it in such a way as to not be a slave to it, but to dominate it. This goes with my general, almost documentary conception of the cinema, in as much as I take real characters, who exist outside of the film, I accept them entirely, I don’t want to rob them of their particularities, even if these disappear with the passage of time. In Ma nuit chez Maud, the discourse is less specific to our time: let’s say that it is very “mid-century”. The insertion of my tales into the temporality of the character has never posed any problems for me: it happens by itself.
CAHIERS: On the one hand you film the present, on the other hand the general schema of the “Moral Tales” is ahistorical: yet, in Ma nuit chez Maud, there is, moreover, a precise discourse concerning history and the various bets one can place on the course of history: a very coherent Catholic discourse and a Marxist discourse that is less coherent, which is to say, very coherent from a Catholic point of view.
ROHMER: Obviously! The cinema shows real things. If I show a house, it’s a real, coherent house, not something made out of cardboard. When I show traffic on the road, it’s real traffic in a certain city, at a certain moment. It’s the same for the discourses in the film, I’m not looking for schematisation. I’m showing a Marxist, a Catholic, not the Marxist, the Catholic.
CAHIERS: In a sequence in Ma nuit chez Maud, the meeting between Vitez and Trintignant in the café, Vitez speaks to Trintignant about the prospects for the advent of socialism. This discourse is symmetrical to Trintignant’s discourse on chance and probabilities. Yet, as a communist, Vitez is supposed to base his ideas on a science, historical materialism, which envisages the advent of socialism without any wager, without fideism.
ROHMER: Attention. Marxism does not place a wager, but you can wager on Marxism. In as much as historical materialism is not a science…
CAHIERS: Historical materialism is a science.
ROHMER: No. It’s a philosophy. You can’t tell me that Marxism is a science. That the sum of the angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, nobody will deny. Whereas with dialectical materialism…
CAHIERS: We said “historical materialism”.
ROHMER: All right, historical materialism, one can deny its very fundamentals. For example, I personally don’t attribute any value to it. Except as a philosophical system, among others. But it is not a science.
CAHIERS: The problem is not at all in our divergence with relation to historical materialism. It is in the discourse held by Vitez as a communist activist in the film. If, indeed, his adherence is a wager on a science, it would have been necessary for the film to present him as a “hesitant Marxist”. Yet, it’s Marxism itself which is presented as being hesitant.
ROHMER: I don’t know about that. I can’t make a judgement about it as a Marxist, not being one. But, in the same way that my Catholic says things which can shock certain Catholics, my Marxist does not have to be a model Marxist. It’s a character who calls himself a Marxist, much as Trintignant calls himself a Catholic. Is he Marxist from the point of view of Marxist orthodoxy? Is Trintignant Catholic from the point of view of Catholic orthodoxy? I don’t know, but this is what shapes my project, for that’s what interests me: showing men who are not absolutely certain of the validity of their adherence to a doctrine, and who interrogate themselves about it and place a wager on it.
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19 of Eric Rohmer’s 22 films
____________ The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007) ‘Rohmer’s films foreground conversation, but, more importantly, they explore the ways in which discussion can serve as a substitute for the gratification of furious desires. This therefore allows his subjects to externalize, contain and neutralize their desires, out of fear of what havoc their desires may unleash. Rohmer demonstrates, perhaps greater than any other filmmaker, the sensual power of words, and how sexual drives can be expressed through verbal gamesmanship. This quality of discursivity as the foundation of romantic couplings is shared by the pastoral genre, which tended to structure its comedies as strings of dialogues largely meditating on the ideas of romance and social graces. Astrea and Celadon are lovers who must hide their passion from their parents, who are at odds with one another. It has been agreed that Celadon must flirt with other women to maintain their cover, yet, when Astrea sees him advancing upon a local girl at a dance, she becomes so consumed with envy and paranoia that she expels him from her life. A distraught Celadon—a chaste, over-sensitive, faintly ridiculous romantic in line with so many of Rohmer’s male protagonists—impulsively throws himself in the river, leaving behind a lengthy suicide note scrawled in tree bark. He survives the attempted drowning however, and washes up on a part of the bank positioned next to a grand castle operated by three young women, self-proclaimed “nymphs,” who nurse them back to health. The nymph Galathée quickly becomes enamoured with Celadon, yet her attempts to seduce him are repeatedly frustrated, as he vows to remain faithful to Astrea while simultaneously honoring her desire to never see him again; his comical literalism aligns him with the protagonists of Rohmer’s earlier Moral Tales. The two characters lead lives shadowed by the absence of their lover. To avoid temptation, Celadon sets up a fort made of sticks and leaves in a secluded part of the forest, where he vows the stay. Meanwhile, Astrea, believing Celadon dead, isolates herself from the community in insular despair.’ — MUBI
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_____________ Triple agent (2004) ‘Triple Agent is a sad film, but not a dark one. It is like an elegy, or a lamentation: mournful but romantic. We see a faith challenged and destroyed, but we do not feel that faith itself is futile. I certainly look at this portrait of a marriage and find in it many virtues, many truths—its specific problems generalize easily to the moral condition of many relationships. What makes the film feel so tough and unconsoling is that it prods at the insufficiencies of goodness in a world which is impossible to master or comprehend. Rohmer’s insertion of archival footage shocks us, because it reveals that even the immensely nuanced perspective that he crafts does not cohere entirely with reality. Pieces are missing; our theory of history is ever incomplete; and in the end the chaotic march of history defines our lives, no matter what powers we obtain in our attempts to defend against it.’— MUBI
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_____________ The Lady and the Duke (2001) ‘Lavishly produced at a cost of some $6 million US, the film recouped only $1.9 million US in its initial theatrical release, though The Lady and the Duke gained some additional revenue from a DVD release, something that wouldn’t be possible today in the era of streaming-only VOD. In many ways, the film belongs to another era, despite the use of digital imaging and CGI effects. This thoughtful, transcendent film belongs the past as much as the present, and serves both as a meditation on the past, and a warning for the future – something Rohmer tried to do with all his films; to instruct, and enlighten his audience.’— Senses of Cinema
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Conte d’automne (Autumn Tale, 1998) ‘The last of Rohmer’s “Tales of the Four Seasons” (1990-98), the quartet which would be his final series, Autumn Tale is a magisterial late work – gentle, autumnal and mellow – that remains among the director’s very finest. In contrast to the dominant emphasis on youth in so much of his previous work, Rohmer now focuses instead on two middle-aged friends, played by his two favorite actresses, Marie Rivière and Béatrice Romaine, as the heroines of an intriguing plot spun from the matchmaking efforts of one for the other, and perhaps for herself as well. This well-intentioned intervention engenders a string of complications that culminate in a masterfully choreographed wedding sequence that alternates between comedy, melodrama and farce.’— Harvard Film Archive
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Conte d’été (A Summer’s Tale, 1996) ‘Foucault, writing on a certain type of overcome self where “this pleasure…is a state that is neither accompanied nor followed by any form of disturbance in the body or mind. It is defined by the fact of not being caused by anything that is independent of ourselves and therefore escapes our control”, might at first seem to be offering an example of control freakery. But it’s merely asking of each individual that they see themselves autonomously, first and foremost; that anything which enters into that autonomy can become the hint at mutually evolving selves present in A Summer’s Tale, as Gaspard and Margot converse and become more themselves and at the same time more at one with each other and the world. Rohmer’s films can seem like lightweight accounts of indecisive behaviour, but they contain within them possibilities far beyond the work of many filmmakers whose concerns may be more pessimistically explored, but no more deeply felt.’— Tony McKibbin, Experimental Conversations
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Éric Rohmer sur le tournage de Conte d’été
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Conte d’hiver (A Tale of Winter, 1992) ‘A Rohmer film is a flavor that, once tasted, cannot be mistaken. Like the Japanese master Ozu, with whom he is sometimes compared, he is said to make the same film every time. Yet, also like Ozu, his films seem individual and fresh and never seem to repeat themselves; both directors focus on people rather than plots, and know that every person is a startling original while most plots are more or less the same. His earlier films were about men and women; A Tale of Winter isabout women and men, or women and women. He is concerned with the search for love and pattern in life. He loves the way women look and move and talk, and the way they evaluate men. He admires physical beauty, but never makes it the point; he chooses actresses who are smart and bright-eyed, and focuses on their personalities rather than their exteriors. What pervades Rohmer’s work is a faith in love–or, if not love, then in the right people finding each other for the right reasons. There is sadness in his work but not gloom. His characters are too smart to be surprised by disappointments, and too interested in life to indulge in depression. His films succeed not because large truths are discovered, but because small truths will do.’— Roger Ebert
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L’ami de mon amie (Boyfriends and Girlfriends, 1987) ‘Boyfriends and Girlfriends is among Rohmer’s lightest, most playful (and most overtly schematic) confections, breezing through the major preoccupations of his Comedies and Proverbs film series like icing on a particularly rich cake. As such, it feels very much like the summation of the preceding five works, an airily diagrammatic working through, and at least partial commentary upon, their prevailing characteristics. This is particularly clear in relation to the narrative structure and format of the film, which unusually for the Comedies and Proverbs series is constructed much more around a clean and classical aesthetic, one that is more compact and self-contained. Rohmer’s mise en scéne is predicated on clear-cut oppositions, harmonies and discordances. Costumes and colours are coded throughout, especially blues and greens, so that the joyous final scene not only matches two sets of characters in harmonious contrast (each couple clothed in compliments of blue and green), but is set it in a luxurious outdoor cafe in a location dominated by the natural correlative of clear water and thick foliage in deep sunshine. The whole is a rhapsody in blue and green that has the effect of speaking for the characters; characters who have struggled to enunciate and communicate, even to comprehend, their feelings throughout.’— Senses of Cinema
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4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle (1987) ‘As if making a joke about the famous talkiness of his films, Eric Rohmer’s latest work begins and ends with silence – or at least the idea of silence. In the first of the connected episodes in Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle, the voluble Reinette treasures silence so much she wakes her friend Mirabelle before dawn to hear ”the blue hour,” which is not an hour but a second, not a sound but a brief silence between darkness and light, when the night birds stop singing and the day birds have not yet begun. Mr. Rohmer and his characters are always searching for such perfect moments, which are not epiphanies but luxurious experiences in their own right: touching a young woman’s knee in Claire’s Knee of 1970, or waiting to see the green ray, the moment when the setting sun flashes green on the horizon, in Summer (1986). His films themselves are just such experiences – apparently evanescent, yet remarkably weighty and memorable.’— Caryn James, NYT
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_____________ The Green Ray (1986) ‘This 1986 film from the late new wave veteran Eric Rohmer is the penultimate chapter of his six-part series Comedies and Proverbs, and arguably the best. Written in collaboration with its lead Marie Rivière, it’s a remarkably slender, even flimsy-seeming story about a young woman, Delphine, who finds herself unsure how to spend her summer holiday and ends up drifting from friend to friend, resort to resort, increasingly disconsolate and at a loose end. Still, she clings to her faith in destiny, which eventually seems to reveal its design in the form of an obscure Jules Verne novel chatted about by a group of senior citizens on the Biarritz beachfront. Shot on 16mm with a skeleton crew, the film features a number of Rohmer regulars, including Béatrice Romand and Rosette as Delphine’s pugnacious and coquettish friends, respectively, together with assorted non-professionals. They bring the tang of uncooked reality to a story that at times resembles a documentary on the French cult of the summer holiday.’— The Guardian
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Les nuits de la pleine lune (Full Moon in Paris, 1984) ‘”He who has two women loses his soul; he who has two houses loses his mind.” Beautiful interior decorator Pascale Ogier has a live-in boyfriend at her home in the country but enjoys a carefree single life when she stays at her apartment in Paris. Can she continue to have it both ways? And is that even what she really wants? Best Film of 1985, French Syndicate of Cinema Critics; Silver Lion for Best Actress (Ogier), 1984 Venice Film Festival. Eric Rohmer (1920-2010) changed the course of contemporary filmmaking with his eloquent, elegant and probing films focused on small moral dilemmas in the everyday lives of middle-class people. The most literary of the Nouvelle Vague filmmakers, Rohmer’s trademark comedies of manners are, in fact, as much about his characters’ linguistic habits as they are about their lives, loves and entanglements.’ — AFI
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Pauline à la plage (Pauline at the Beach, 1983) ‘One of Rohmer’s most accessible films, Pauline at the Beach focuses on a merry-go-round of love and sex between four people who meet on vacation, all under the watchful eye of a pair of adolescents, who ultimately seem the wisest characters of all. Guided by the proverb roughly translated as “He who talks too much undoes himself,” Rohmer derives rich comedy and drama from the gaps between the moral positions declared by each of the adults and promptly contradicted by their subsequent actions. The film marks the final collaboration between Rohmer and cinematographer Nestor Almendros, who ignites the summertime beach setting with luminous imagery inspired by Matisse.’— HFA
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Le Beau Mariage (A Good Marriage, 1982) ‘The La Fontaine proverb that begins this film asks, “Who has not built castles in Spain?” and the film follows with a cautionary tale about the dangers of hatching elaborate and improbable schemes. Rohmer favorite Béatrice Romand plays a young woman bent not on playing the field but rather waiting to meet the ideal man for marriage. In typical Rohmerian fashion, her resolute goal-orientation makes her alternately admirable and insufferable as she wills herself into awkward courtship and miscommunication. Ultimately, Rohmer’s heroine finds herself in a whirlwind of changing mores, the wake that followed the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s and the crossroads that recurs as the setting for the entire cycle of “Comedies and Proverbs.”’ — HFA
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Perceval le Gallois (1978) ‘Eric Rohmer takes a great leap out of the comfortable middle class environs that have constituted almost all of his films and lands in the 12th century — but it’s not that drastic a stretch once one discovers that Rohmer’s idee fixe of “fidelity” is as present as ever. Not just fidelity as to one’s values, but Rohmer’s fidelity to recreating past moments and objects in a cinematic idiom. In his other films, he has strived to achieve a faithfully realistic recreation of everyday interactions between people — here he strives to cinematically construct the Arthurian tale of Perceval de Gallois as true-to-the-letter as possible, to the point of matching the source text word for word (so that the characters narrate their own actions. The film is set on a soundstage where knights pass by artificial trees and enter gilded castles barely large enough to fit one person. This is essential Rohmer and a must-see by all means.’— Also Like Life
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Eric Rohmer: Rehearsal of Perceval le Gallois and interview
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Die Marquise von O… (The Marquise of O, 1976) ‘Rohmer followed the great successes of his “Six Moral Tales” with a marked departure from his playful studies of shifting ethical codes in contemporary France by adapting an 1808 novella by Heinrich von Kleist. Like the novella, the film begins with the publication of a remarkable newspaper advertisement, signed by the Marquise of the title, in which she reveals that she is pregnant and desirous of the man responsible to reveal himself. While chance encounters spontaneously drive the protagonists of the “Moral Tales” to examine their own consciences, here fate forces the Marquise to confront both her own comportment and the prejudices of her day. Taking full advantage of the film’s West Germany locations and entirely German cast, Rohmer and Nestor Almendros enriched the period film with rich quotes from German Romantic painting.’— HFA
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L’amour l’après-midi (Love in the Afternoon, 1972) ‘Love in the Afternoon is the last of the Six Moral Tales. Frederic (Bernard Varley), is a happily married, well-to-do lawyer married to Helene (Francoise Verley), a somewhat chilly English professor. He is attracted to other women and misses the time when he was free. “I feel marriage closes me in,” he says, “cloisters me, and I want to escape. The prospect of happiness opening indefinitely before me sobers me. I find myself missing that time, not too long ago, when I could experience the pangs of anticipation.” Though there is a lot of talking in Chloe in the Afternoon, it never seems false or tiresome. This is a very charming film that Pauline Kael called “in every respects, a perfect film.” It has a natural rhythm with characters that are so real that you don’t want to leave them when the film ends.’— Cinescene
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Le genou de Claire (Claire’s Knee, 1970) ‘Of all the male protagonists in the “Six Moral Tales”—each a man in a steady relationship who finds himself tempted by an unexpected other woman—the lead in Claire’s Knee is arguably the least sympathetic, being a generation older than the unsuspecting, adolescent Claire who is his unwitting temptress. Nouvelle vague stalwart Jean-Claude Brialy plays Jerome, a self-satisfied libertine approaching middle age whose once firm decision to marry his longtime girlfriend is shaken by his encounter with the young Claire. Jerome’s habit of recounting his exploits in a self-serving manner makes explicit Rohmer’s belief that the “Moral Tales” protagonists think of themselves as heroes in a novel, narrating their lives to themselves and others as much as living them. The hints of murky depths in Jerome’s character contrast with the glowing imagery of Annecy in the summer, filmed by Nestor Almendros using a palette inspired by another libertine, Paul Gauguin.’— HFA
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Ma nuit chez Maud (My Night at Maud’s, 1969) ‘The third of Rohmer’s “Moral Tales” and his first international hit, My Night at Maud’s centers around a serious young Catholic engineer who, over the course of several days around Christmas, explores the intersection of chance and choice in his life. Adjusting to a lonely life in provincial Clermont-Ferrand after years living abroad, he finds himself torn between the woman chance has thrown him together with and one he has never met but instinctively believes to be his ideal. The film’s centerpiece is the titular night, which the snowbound Jean-Louis Trintignant spends with a charming, agnostic divorcee, sharing ideas about philosophy and life and, eventually, her bed. Pascal’s Pensées figures heavily in their circular and sparkling debates about religion, marriage and free will.’ — HFA
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La Collectionneuse (The Collector, 1967) ‘In The Collector, Rohmer’s first feature-length film, mind-games, strategies, and overt manipulation thwart the possibility of satisfying relationships. The 54-minute film is beautifully photographed and has an elegance, charm, and wit that bears favorable comparison with his more acclaimed works. Adrien (Patrick Bauchau), an art dealer, and Daniel (Daniel Pommereulle), a painter spend the summer in a house on the French Riviera. Also vacationing there is Haydee (Haydee Politoff), an elegant but rather aloof young woman who sleeps with many boys in the area and has earned the title of “collectionneuse,” a collector of men. The Collector is perhaps the most philosophical of the six films in Rohmer’s ‘Moral Tales’ cycle, but in the end the pursuit without passion leads to a feeling of emptiness and missed opportunities. Like most of Rohmer’s films, there are no peak dramatic moments or confrontations, just everyday life elevated into art.’— Cinescene
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p.s. Hey. Things proceed well here, but unfortunately still not in a particularly colorful to describe way. We have most of the main roles cast now. Unsurprisingly, the two roles that are proving difficult are the ones involving children — the daughter of the family (a main role) and a young boy who’s seen going through the haunted house (in a relatively small but complicated scene). So, our concentration for the next few days is finding those kids. We have a shooting schedule, roughly March 20 – April 20, and now we have to make it align with people’s availability, especially in the case of the performers who are under 18 where we have to work with their school vacations. We still have some crew to find (sound people, gaffers, grips, etc.). And we’re still looking for the locations that aren’t the main house (a few bedrooms, a kitchen, an apartment, a gas station (which we might have found), and the facade of a school). There’s a lot to do, and we’re try to get as much accomplished as we can before I fly back to Paris for a couple of weeks on Thursday and Zac is left here to work on his own for a bit. We’re having a meet and greet with the main cast this week, and hopefully I can share pix from that. Other than film work, I really haven’t done much of anything. Oh well. ** CAUTIVOS, Hi. ‘Lifesize’, no, I haven’t seen it. I wrote a kind of scathing profile of Ryu Murakami a long time ago, and I got in a bit of trouble for it. It’s in my book ‘Smothered in Hugs’. I think his early books are okay. I haven’t read anything of his in years. ** Cody Goodnight, Hi, Cody. That Nazi thing was news to me too. Nice that you have interesting job prospects. That’s not often the case, obviously. That is awesome about your camera exercise, and I can imagine the addiction thing. I’ve never operated an actual filming camera. On our sets, I just watch with fascination basically. So, the television class is really interesting? Is working in TV something you want to do? I too hate ‘Requiem for a Dream’ too and pretty much all of Aronofsky’s other films really. Nice viewings you had there. I haven’t see anything this week, or, well, I half-watched some episodes of ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘Wednesday’ that my roommate was watching. Both seemed okay, I guess. Nothing mind-boggling. Anyway, have a great week. How was it? ** Bill, Hi. I look forward to the exciting part. We’re still a bit far from that, although it’s kind of exciting to find great cast members. Jimmy De Sana is cool. I think I did a post about him. I’ll have to go check.I think I’m going to see ‘Infinity Pool’ this weekend if I get some hours off. Thanks for the tip about ‘Glow’. I’ll get to it. I hope your week is glitch-free. ** Ellie, Him, Ellie! My cold is long gone, thankfully. I’m good, a bit exhausted, but that’s okay. Yeah, the sex doll is interesting. I’m obviously very interested in escorts and slaves, and they’re in the same family, just more ultimate (or the opposite of ultimate?). Cool about Saori. I’m surprised I didn’t find her in my searching. Anyway, very awesome offshoot thoughts, thank you. Compared to Paris, it’s definitely warm here, although locals complain about the chill. Oh, the DP is on board. We had a long meeting with him yesterday. He’s super great. I’ll hope to have some actually interesting film tidbits by next week. Have a swell 7 days! xo, me. ** David Ehrenstein, Ha ha ha, maybe it is! ** _Black_Acrylic, That is seriously vegan unfriendly. That said, your dad’s attitude makes a lot of sense. How are you, pal? ** Russ Healy, Hi, Russ. Yeah, I was and am really sad about Tom Verlaine. He was so brilliant. I think his post-Television solo is great too and really underrated, in particular ‘Dreamtime’, but there are fantastic things on all of his albums. Things are good and very busy here, yeah. How are you? What’s going on? ** Dominik, Hi, D!!!!!! I’m hanging in there, sometimes only by my fingertips, ha ha, but it’s happening. New SCAB! Wow, that’s exciting news! My head cold is a dead duck, thankfully. I feel pretty sure love can fill your order. I might ask him for two of them, if you don’t mind. Love making this six year old girl we really want to play the daughter in our film say yes, or, well, actually, making her parents say yes, G. ** h now j, Hi. I’ll keep you posted and try to keep the really boring parts (most of them) to myself. Forest animals! Out where we’re going to shoot the film, it’s mostly snakes which we do not want to hang out with. Wow, are you looking forward to being in another country or the opposite? Thanks, my friend. Focused and zoned is a perfect description of my current state too. ** A. C., Hi, welcome! You can write to me at [email protected]. Thanks so much! ** Steve, Hi, Steve. I hope things at your parents’ place have settled in. How long are you there for? I’m going to try to see ‘Infinity Pool’ this weekend if I can manage my time right. Work’s been good. We hope to have the main cast in place by the time I leave. We’re looking for cheaper than AirBnB housing or freebies because of heavy budget restrictions, but we’ll likely end up housing at least some people that way. Our film isn’t intended as horror, no, but I think it might get contextualized there because of the home haunt aspect, at least to people who haven’t seen it yet. Everyone, Steve interviewed Brandon Cronenberg about ‘Infinity Pool’ here. ** Kyle, Hi, Kyle! I did indeed get your email. Things have been so intense and draining that I haven’t gotten to watch the film yet, but I’m looking for the first opportunity that my brain can intake it without distortion. Thanks a lot! I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Take good care. ** Billy, Thanks, Billy. I’m trying, I’m trying really hard. And you? ** alex, I did! I loved it, as I said, as has everyone, which I may or may not have said. Yeah, by, like, mid-March we should be in the exciting part, or most exciting. Can’t fucking wait. Yeah, same about movies on acid. The real is a better thing to observe when fried. It’s been so long since I took acid, hm … the only thing I remember being wowed by was stupid cartoons, I think because I could get into thinking about it being drawn at the same time it was playing maybe? I’m curious about ‘IP’. I honestly didn’t think that much of his previous two films, but we’ll see. Your take is really interested. I won’t be surprised if I agree. Did you get writing done, I’m heavily hoping? ** T, T! Howdy!!!! I’ll be back in the big P on Friday for a couple of weeks. We should meet up! Honestly, I’m going to be so extremely jet lagged that day that I think it’s impossible to think about going to see Moor Mother because I will likely be so dead asleep by then. But drat! Ha ha, in a weird way, I did have a week almost like that. Have a week that is the exact opposite of my upcoming week. You’ll thank me, trust me. xoxox, Dennis. ** NLK, Hi, hi! Wow, I’m honestly almost kind of drooling myself about that drooly warplane talk. I weirdly love stuff like that. Weird passion is so dreamy. Ha ha, your co-worker. I’m going to go trip on that now. You doing great in general, one hopes? ** Caesar, Hi, C. The film wasn’t intended to take place in the desert originally, but because we needed a house where neighbors wouldn’t complain and where we could dig a swamp in the backyard and so on, the desert area and a house in the relative middle of nowhere became a cheap, obviously easy solution. Now we like that it’s in the desert. I haven’t seen ‘The Fabelmans’. I didn’t like ‘Tar’ much, but no fault of CB’s. The films I like the most tend to be very experimental and would never be nominated for an Oscar, or even an Independent Spirit Award, ha ha, in a million years. I think ‘EO’ and ‘All the Beauty and Bloodshed’ got nominated for something, and I liked those pretty well. I haven’t seen ‘Argentina, 1985’, but I’ll try to, thanks! Cool, I’m really glad you liked the post. Thanks for the hug and kiss. I’m boomeranging them back to you. Yeah, sunscreen, it’s trusty companion these days. Be well. See you again soon. ** Robert, Hey, Robert. Oh, awesome! Yeah, sure, about not getting my bearings with poetry, especially with Ashbery’s where I feel like getting lost in all that precise elliptical construction is a gift. His poems are like bottomless dreamy witty pits or something, even when they seem simple and shallow. Yeah, I could go on and on about his stuff. I’m really happy you like being in there too. Things with the film are pretty good and getting solid. How are you in general? Anything new and exciting apart from Ashbery? ** Loser, Hi! I’m kind of vaguely nudging into the fun part of making the film. Oh, nice, about the VCRchat project. That sounds really curious and splintery. And obviously about the comix. I hope I can see something of those ar some point. Thanks, thanks! Have an excellent next 7. ** Nick., Hey, hey! My brain is all film project vs. lessening preparation time. So, honestly, I think I’ve mostly thought about how we can get two small kids who can ‘act’ at least in a minimal way to be in the film, since that’s the big ask right now. We’re going to audition a 9 year old boy with waist length long hair soon after I post this. Great about your nice project involvement. What was is it, if you can say? Your imaginary friend sounds short story-worthy if not even film adaptation-appropriate. very pretty description/portrait. Interesting question. Hm, when I’ve felt like that around someone, it’a definitely not something as focused as lust or even love/crush. I get awestruck really easily. I remember being in junior high school and seeing this boy who I instantly thought was the most perfect, beautiful looking person I had ever seen, and I kind of went totally blank. My friends who were with me had to turn me in the opposite direction and shake me physically to get me back to normal. I think all possible feelings and desires in me were exploding all at once and cancelling each other out or something. It was like being at peace when I think about it. How interesting. Yeah, so I totally get that. I think I’ll need that extra time to think about the story but I will endeavour to make it mind-blowing, I promise. Eternal friendship it is!! ** Right. I decided to restore Eric Rohmer Day for whatever reason. Enjoy. I will see you in a week, whereupon things will return to normal on the posting schedule front for a while. Nice.
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