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Don't Believe the Hype

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Rohmer likes his morals and the moral for me here is how moving from one stage in life to another can't be forced. We can't decide to be in a different 'place' in life on a whim, without doing the maturing first. There's no short-cut. The cringeworthy party scene is perhaps the telling scene. Not just because of Sabine's inability to crawl out from childish ways, but equally Edmond's inability to cast his mind back to a time when he was giddy and foolish and work didn't matter. The supporting cast - friend Claude, Mother and the antiques dealer all have wisdom that comes through experience, but they know better than to waste too much breath with logic that headstrong Sabine is not ready for. A rites of passage, "find-out-the-hard-way" movie that's not as slight as first glances might suggest.

Finding the performances in the first part of this loosely connected movie series to be better than what I was expecting from Eric Rohmer, (who was such a hipster that he never owned a phone-bloody hippy!) that I decided to take a look at the second in the series.The plot:Deciding that she has had enough of being a mistress for married men,art student Sabine sets her sights on finding a good single man.Meeting up with her pal Clarisse, Clarisse ends up introducing Sabine to her cousin Edmond.Soon falling for him,Sabine decides that Edmond is the one,but soon finds her past catching up.View on the film:Joined by an off-beat score from Ronan Girre & Simon des Innocents,writer/director Éric Rohmer and cinematographer Bernard Lutic tan the title in a golden bloom which casts a romantic Autumn atmosphere over the film. Holding her head high, Béatrice Romand gives a good performance as Sabine,whose art side Romand rolls in, along with all the frustrations just under Sabine's fingers.Making Sabine an art student,the screenplay by auteur Rohmer laps up all of the golden lights from the middle class elite art world.Whilst his love of the bourgeoisie life fits the arty brush strokes,it leads to Sabine's romance with Edmond to feel incredibly empty,due to Rohmer's fixture on the bourgeoisie leading to a calm mood which stops any sign of passion or intimacy being shown in a marriage that is breaking apart at the seams.

Beatrice Romand is a perfect cast for the hot-headed, impetuous, self-confident and immature young girl in the leading role, while Andre Dussollier plays the role of a quintessential bourgeois Frenchman, charming, courteous, discreet, and tactful. His tact has reached the point of being hypocritical which makes the audience exasperate for the young girl, who has been kept on tenterhooks for too long and would not take no for an answer. Her insistent and blind chase of a man who is obviously not interested in her is only made worse by the reticence of the object of her pursuit. Rohmer's films are usually wordy sometimes tedious, they suit only certain type of audience. This one is definitely not tedious. An interesting and comical study of manners and mentalities in different classes of French society of the late 20th century.

I like Rohmer realistic films, without background music, without closeups. A young 23 years old girl, still quite narcissistic, suddenly decides to reshape her life, specifically, to get married. The idea overwhelms her so completely that she's no longer interested in selecting someone she loves, rather impatiently first available candidate. She believes that the power of her charms (looks and personality), her resolve, will win over anyone. She's being supported by her girl-friend and somewhat skeptical but loving mother. Her plans are frustrated despite of her extraordinary efforts. The man is simply not interested.There are many lessons in this example. Personality of the main character is very well developed, palpable, vital. I feel I knew someone like that. None of the characters are idealized, they all are very real. We see a slice of life, specifically French life, with its values, culture, attitudes.Rohmer, first and most importantly, a teacher, helps us to see something important in human relationships, something very subtle.Rohmer died this year at the age of 89. He lived longer than any of the French New Wave directors, a movement he belonged to. He believed that his films are closer to a kind of novel rather than to a theater. In my opinion, his usage of cinematographic tools was too subdued, timid, as if he was not quite sure what to do with them - and this is reflected in my rating. But whatever tools he did used, he did it well. His uniqueness and importance is beyond any doubt.