La Boulangère de Monceau (The Bakery Girl of Monceau). Another Éric Rohmer film (previously), the first of his Six Moral Tales. This is a worthy short one, only 23 minutes. The focus is an everyday occurrence: a guy sees an attractive gal on the street, doesn’t say anything, regrets it, then toys with a bakery girl as a substitute as he tries to find the first. The man’s narration is an out-loud self-analysis, full of his internal churning, hedges and rationalizations about his choices. Here’s a Criterion essay.
Tag: ericrohmer
La Collectionneuse
La Collectionneuse. One of Éric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales. Like Roman Holiday, this one centers on a question that doesn’t get answered until the last minute. It wasn’t as much pure fun, but I still respect a patient movie. From Phillip Lopate’s Criterion essay:
Here we see one of Rohmer’s most original tropes: the tepid attraction. It flies in the face of all cinematic convention, which dictates that the encounter of a good-looking man and a good-looking woman must lead to grand narrative passion. […] Rohmer views the problems of indolent, potential-laden, prolonged youth in this film from the perspective of the middle-aged artist, who knows that the clock is ticking.