The auteur's quartet of '90s films recently resurfaced in restored prints on The Criterion Channel. They're all great, but we decided to rank them anyway.
I think I've only seen Autumn (which I loved) but definitely need to watch the whole series. Also a shout out for Rendezvous in Paris, which came out in the middle of the season series and was the first Rohmer I saw and immediately loved.
I am just now revisiting these after several (or many) years -- first up was the first chronologically, A Tale of Springtime. I'm curious if anyone can shed some light on Rohmer's journey with this one, as the release date of 1990 seems out of step with the fashions depicted (which fairly scream 1984 or thereabouts). Did he fiddle around with it for that long, or shelve it undistributed for some reason? Or am I just imagining things?
I think there are three related things here, more having to do with fashion than Rohmer:
— People don’t realize how long the “eighties” stretched in terms of fashion.
— Our idea of what year or period a fashion’s from is often a couple years ahead of when it filtered into people’s wardrobes. For one thing our media references tend to be leading indicators because they’re costumed by professionals or focus on trend-setters. This is a bit forgotten since clothing got a lot less expensive in the mid-nineties—even in 1990 people had smaller wardrobes with less turnover (it’s a bit like the rec. in set design if you’re doing a period piece home decor should look like it’s actually from the previous decade, because home decor usually was).
—There was more regional variation even in casual clothing at the time—trends might be more localized, last longer or shorter periods in different areas, or filter through at different points (stereotypically casual clothing in Europe was a couple years “behind” the states, but I don’t think that was always true).
That noted I haven’t seen *A Tale in Springtime* but looking at screencaps it doesn’t seem particularly eighties to me, particularly compared to, say, *L’ami de mon amie*—in screencaps *Springtime*’s costumes have more muted colors and earth tones than the fairly pure-to-pastel shades in *L’ami*.
Thanks for the great reply! I should stipulate I am not a fashion follower, and my assumption that France would be ahead of the US sounds like a faulty one. However, I sent the below clip to a friend (also American) who was more aware of such things in that era and her snap reply was "1984". I dunno, you be the judge:
Fashion in 80s-90s Rohmer is always wild: https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/80s-fashion-choices-films-eric-rohmer There's no credited costume or production designer on imdb for these films, so I get the sense that Rohmer probably just had his actors supply their own wardrobes or buy them off the rack. Or maybe he really was just trying to chase every trend. It does give a very "dated" quality that probably better reflects what people wore than most movies of the era. That said, the stuff seen in Spring doesn't seem that far off from the costumes in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), its rough contemporary. And these films give me acid flashbacks to the dorky videos that accompanied my high school French textbook, which were I think made in the early 90s.
I have never seen a Rohmer film, one of many cavernous, gaping holes in my film-watching resume. Would these films be a good way in or is there another that might be a better candidate?
Of the ones I've seen (and I have blanks to fill, which is part of why I assigned myself this piece) there's not really a wrong place to start. MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S and THE GREEN RAY are my favorites. His early movies are shot by Nestor Almendros so they look especially great but the later ones are pretty gorgeous-looking, too.
Can 2nd MAUD'S as a good intro; I think it's harder to track down these days, but THE AVIATOR'S WIFE is also amazing and was a great intro to his work.
I can't speak to the Four Seasons films as they're still sitting in my unwatched pile, but I've seen 15 other Rohmer's, so feel reasonably confident weighting in.
Things to be aware of:
- His 'Six Moral Tales' often feature quite dickish male protagonists. Rohmer clearly doesn't endorse their behaviour (and often puts a sting in the tale for those characters), but there is still a fair amount of dickery. Also, philosophical art-house voice-overs.
- His 'Comedies & Proverbs' mostly have female protagonists, or in the case of 'The Aviator's Wife', a softish male lead. I much prefer them to the earlier series. Also, no voice-overs.
My personal favourites are 'Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle' (not a part of the Comedies and Proverbs, but made immediately afterwards) and 'Boyfriends and Girlfriends' (a.k.a. 'My Girlfriend's Boyfriend'). They're both a bit more comedic than Rohmer's usual fare though, so if you lean towards drama more than comedy, possibly not the ideal first stop.
'The Aviator's Wife' is a great pick, and a great movie. 'My Night at Maud's' might be Rohmer's most lauded work, but I think it's the weakest of either series. It's a very religious movie, and if, like me, you're the sort of person who rolls their eyes at the mention of Pascal's Wager, I'd give it a wide berth.
Thanks so much for these recs! After watching Bergman's Winter Light recently, I may have had my fill of religious movies for the rest of the year. ;)
I really dislike voiceovers in general -- though I do give a pass to Paul Schrader. As long as the voiceover is character-expanding instead of exposition-expanding, I'm okay with it. I just hate them if all it's doing is info-dumping the audience.
I was expecting Keith's actual season ranking to draw more fire here. Are summers too oppressive now for the #2 slot? I tend to agree with him all around here, but that might be Chicago talking. Feels like winter hangs around too long into spring here-- though it's gorgeous today-- and September/October is when everything is set right.
I don't wholly agree with Keith's seasonal ranking, but anyone who would do more than switch (2) and (3) is either a student or teacher (for whom Summer as #1 is an obvious choice), or else not in complete possession of their faculties.
Having lived in Chicago for a few years, I'd definitely rank summers there lower than Seattle/PNW summers. Also never really thought Chicago spring was more than 2-3 weeks, and it could still suddenly snow during "spring" or be 85 the next day.
You've got spring right. Very temperamental. Though Chicago does have a handful of days every year that are so glorious you wonder why you'd ever want to live anywhere else. And then there are the other days.
Actual rankings is very dependent on where you live.
I grew up in Wisconsin but love the PNW and have never really liked heat, so my personal ranking is:
4. Summer. Ugh! Pretty sure I have some reverse-SAD on top of things, because I just find summer a slog.
3. Spring. Summer's coming, yo. But a huge step up from Summer itself.
2. Winter. Very colored by being in the PNW — this might be #3 if I still lived in the Great Lakes region, mostly for the snow hassle. But gray and wet? I'll take it!
1. Autumn. Things are cooling down, nights are getting longer, school is back in session, holidays are coming up — A+ work, Autumn.
I’ve only seen two of these so far since I started watching them last December (on the Winter Solstice, naturally). I’ve enjoyed every Rohmer I’ve watched, but I’ve done my best to space them out so they don’t run together. This is why I’m hoping the series hangs on until September so I can watch A Tale of Autumn on the Autumnal Equinox as I originally planned.
I saw “Autumn” on the big screen. It plays better there than on TV
I think I've only seen Autumn (which I loved) but definitely need to watch the whole series. Also a shout out for Rendezvous in Paris, which came out in the middle of the season series and was the first Rohmer I saw and immediately loved.
I am just now revisiting these after several (or many) years -- first up was the first chronologically, A Tale of Springtime. I'm curious if anyone can shed some light on Rohmer's journey with this one, as the release date of 1990 seems out of step with the fashions depicted (which fairly scream 1984 or thereabouts). Did he fiddle around with it for that long, or shelve it undistributed for some reason? Or am I just imagining things?
I think there are three related things here, more having to do with fashion than Rohmer:
— People don’t realize how long the “eighties” stretched in terms of fashion.
— Our idea of what year or period a fashion’s from is often a couple years ahead of when it filtered into people’s wardrobes. For one thing our media references tend to be leading indicators because they’re costumed by professionals or focus on trend-setters. This is a bit forgotten since clothing got a lot less expensive in the mid-nineties—even in 1990 people had smaller wardrobes with less turnover (it’s a bit like the rec. in set design if you’re doing a period piece home decor should look like it’s actually from the previous decade, because home decor usually was).
—There was more regional variation even in casual clothing at the time—trends might be more localized, last longer or shorter periods in different areas, or filter through at different points (stereotypically casual clothing in Europe was a couple years “behind” the states, but I don’t think that was always true).
That noted I haven’t seen *A Tale in Springtime* but looking at screencaps it doesn’t seem particularly eighties to me, particularly compared to, say, *L’ami de mon amie*—in screencaps *Springtime*’s costumes have more muted colors and earth tones than the fairly pure-to-pastel shades in *L’ami*.
Thanks for the great reply! I should stipulate I am not a fashion follower, and my assumption that France would be ahead of the US sounds like a faulty one. However, I sent the below clip to a friend (also American) who was more aware of such things in that era and her snap reply was "1984". I dunno, you be the judge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj1lIh_57-U
FWIW the copyright date is 1989.
Fashion in 80s-90s Rohmer is always wild: https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/80s-fashion-choices-films-eric-rohmer There's no credited costume or production designer on imdb for these films, so I get the sense that Rohmer probably just had his actors supply their own wardrobes or buy them off the rack. Or maybe he really was just trying to chase every trend. It does give a very "dated" quality that probably better reflects what people wore than most movies of the era. That said, the stuff seen in Spring doesn't seem that far off from the costumes in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), its rough contemporary. And these films give me acid flashbacks to the dorky videos that accompanied my high school French textbook, which were I think made in the early 90s.
I have never seen a Rohmer film, one of many cavernous, gaping holes in my film-watching resume. Would these films be a good way in or is there another that might be a better candidate?
Of the ones I've seen (and I have blanks to fill, which is part of why I assigned myself this piece) there's not really a wrong place to start. MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S and THE GREEN RAY are my favorites. His early movies are shot by Nestor Almendros so they look especially great but the later ones are pretty gorgeous-looking, too.
[*rushes to microphone*] CLAIRE'S KNEE!
Can 2nd MAUD'S as a good intro; I think it's harder to track down these days, but THE AVIATOR'S WIFE is also amazing and was a great intro to his work.
That's one I need to track down. Looks like it's streaming on Metrograph's site.
If it's any extra incentive Mike D'Angelo gave it a freakin' 98!
I actually got that one from Netflix’s disc service just a few months ago, so it may still be available there.
I can't speak to the Four Seasons films as they're still sitting in my unwatched pile, but I've seen 15 other Rohmer's, so feel reasonably confident weighting in.
Things to be aware of:
- His 'Six Moral Tales' often feature quite dickish male protagonists. Rohmer clearly doesn't endorse their behaviour (and often puts a sting in the tale for those characters), but there is still a fair amount of dickery. Also, philosophical art-house voice-overs.
- His 'Comedies & Proverbs' mostly have female protagonists, or in the case of 'The Aviator's Wife', a softish male lead. I much prefer them to the earlier series. Also, no voice-overs.
My personal favourites are 'Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle' (not a part of the Comedies and Proverbs, but made immediately afterwards) and 'Boyfriends and Girlfriends' (a.k.a. 'My Girlfriend's Boyfriend'). They're both a bit more comedic than Rohmer's usual fare though, so if you lean towards drama more than comedy, possibly not the ideal first stop.
'The Aviator's Wife' is a great pick, and a great movie. 'My Night at Maud's' might be Rohmer's most lauded work, but I think it's the weakest of either series. It's a very religious movie, and if, like me, you're the sort of person who rolls their eyes at the mention of Pascal's Wager, I'd give it a wide berth.
Thanks so much for these recs! After watching Bergman's Winter Light recently, I may have had my fill of religious movies for the rest of the year. ;)
I really dislike voiceovers in general -- though I do give a pass to Paul Schrader. As long as the voiceover is character-expanding instead of exposition-expanding, I'm okay with it. I just hate them if all it's doing is info-dumping the audience.
I was expecting Keith's actual season ranking to draw more fire here. Are summers too oppressive now for the #2 slot? I tend to agree with him all around here, but that might be Chicago talking. Feels like winter hangs around too long into spring here-- though it's gorgeous today-- and September/October is when everything is set right.
I don't wholly agree with Keith's seasonal ranking, but anyone who would do more than switch (2) and (3) is either a student or teacher (for whom Summer as #1 is an obvious choice), or else not in complete possession of their faculties.
Having lived in Chicago for a few years, I'd definitely rank summers there lower than Seattle/PNW summers. Also never really thought Chicago spring was more than 2-3 weeks, and it could still suddenly snow during "spring" or be 85 the next day.
You've got spring right. Very temperamental. Though Chicago does have a handful of days every year that are so glorious you wonder why you'd ever want to live anywhere else. And then there are the other days.
Actual rankings is very dependent on where you live.
I grew up in Wisconsin but love the PNW and have never really liked heat, so my personal ranking is:
4. Summer. Ugh! Pretty sure I have some reverse-SAD on top of things, because I just find summer a slog.
3. Spring. Summer's coming, yo. But a huge step up from Summer itself.
2. Winter. Very colored by being in the PNW — this might be #3 if I still lived in the Great Lakes region, mostly for the snow hassle. But gray and wet? I'll take it!
1. Autumn. Things are cooling down, nights are getting longer, school is back in session, holidays are coming up — A+ work, Autumn.
I’ve only seen two of these so far since I started watching them last December (on the Winter Solstice, naturally). I’ve enjoyed every Rohmer I’ve watched, but I’ve done my best to space them out so they don’t run together. This is why I’m hoping the series hangs on until September so I can watch A Tale of Autumn on the Autumnal Equinox as I originally planned.
I admire this.