The Éric Rohmer Collection

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barryconvex
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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#126 Post by barryconvex » Fri Jan 31, 2020 2:22 am

L'amour fou _screened_ was pretty overwhelming (luckily we did get an intermission). I'd hold off re-visiting the blurry TV quality version floating around -- wait for a real release.
I just cannot get on this film's wavelength. It's one of those works where I feel like I'm missing something important but damned if I know what it could be. I respect Rivette as much as any director and I'll give it a third try when the proper blu ray is issued.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#127 Post by soundchaser » Sat May 02, 2020 11:43 pm

I’m almost through this set, and it’s been an absolute delight. Even the films I’m not as crazy about (Full Moon in Paris, The Tree, etc.) have had fun moments that make them worth recommending.

At the risk of adding to the glut of lists posted earlier, I have to say that My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend is the best thing on offer here, with Reinette & Mirabelle not far behind. Both are hysterical without feeling frothy — light on their feet, but not light in subject matter. The Marquise of O surprised me in that it’s very unlike the rest of the films but recognizably Rohmer at the same time. (At least from my limited exposure!)

The subtitles are fairly well done, too, from what I can tell. There’s even an attempt to translate a pun in The Tree... that doesn’t really work in English: “mon père est maire” sounds like “mon père est mère,” literally “my dad is mom.” The English translation they go with is “your dad’s a mare?”, preserving the sonority if not the actual meaning.

I’d say it’s worth seeking out the full set for R&M alone, if you can find it for a sensible price.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#128 Post by MichaelB » Sun May 03, 2020 5:31 am

soundchaser wrote:
Sat May 02, 2020 11:43 pm
The subtitles are fairly well done, too, from what I can tell. There’s even an attempt to translate a pun in The Tree... that doesn’t really work in English: “mon père est maire” sounds like “mon père est mère,” literally “my dad is mom.” The English translation they go with is “your dad’s a mare?”, preserving the sonority if not the actual meaning.
I think that's absolutely the right way to have done it, as the sonority is clearly much more important than the meaning. In fact, when I encounter such instances of subtitlers thinking outside the box and making a sincere and often impressively creative attempt at rendering the intended effect of wordplay like that in English, my immediate instinct is to applaud.

Anthony Burgess once tried to phonetically convey someone talking while yawning, and wrote "war awe warthog Warsaw" - and was later horrified to see that his German translator rendered this as "Krieg Ehrfurcht Warzenschwein Warschau", completely missing the point of what Burgess was doing and consequently rendering it as gibberish.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#129 Post by yoloswegmaster » Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:27 pm

Does anyone know if the films from this set are sourced from 2K or HD transfers?

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#130 Post by the__projectionist » Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:19 am

yoloswegmaster wrote:
Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:27 pm
Does anyone know if the films from this set are sourced from 2K or HD transfers?
All of them are sourced from restored transfer except for The Tree, the Mayor, and the Mediatheque which is from an old HD master.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#131 Post by tenia » Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:22 am

The Green Ray and Full Moon in Paris looked like older masters to me.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#132 Post by the__projectionist » Mon Feb 22, 2021 2:21 am

tenia wrote:
Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:22 am
The Green Ray and Full Moon in Paris looked like older masters to me.
I did search for a bit and Full Moon in Paris seems "new digital restoration" (in 2015), some posts indicated it was in 2K. The Green Ray blu starts with this image.

Image

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#133 Post by tenia » Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:08 am

Interesting thanks. I didn't check the tech details for those 2 and only used my impressions while watching them. Might be a faulty memory though.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#134 Post by EddieLarkin » Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:57 am

tenia wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:08 am
Interesting thanks. I didn't check the tech details for those 2 and only used my impressions while watching them. Might be a faulty memory though.
Was it established whether or not any of the transfers used in Criterion's set are new vs the ones from Potemkine?

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#135 Post by mhofmann » Mon Feb 22, 2021 4:11 am

EddieLarkin wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:57 am
tenia wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:08 am
Interesting thanks. I didn't check the tech details for those 2 and only used my impressions while watching them. Might be a faulty memory though.
Was it established whether or not any of the transfers used in Criterion's set are new vs the ones from Potemkine?
The Potemkine and Criterion transfers are pretty much identical for the films inside the Six Moral Tales cycle. I don't think there is any newer transfer. In both sets, The Bakery Girl of Monceau suffers from too strong grain management, which is baked into the master.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#136 Post by black&huge » Thu Feb 17, 2022 2:59 pm

I have been wanting this set for a wghile now however I am on the hunt for the LE and my questions there are how come it was decided the four films that are not in the SE set would only be in the LE and why haven't standard editions of those been released yet?

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#137 Post by mhofmann » Thu Feb 17, 2022 4:02 pm

black&huge wrote:
Thu Feb 17, 2022 2:59 pm
I have been wanting this set for a wghile now however I am on the hunt for the LE and my questions there are how come it was decided the four films that are not in the SE set would only be in the LE and why haven't standard editions of those been released yet?
Oh yes! I already have the SE and what I would give to get these four films from Arrow again...

Okay, maybe slightly less than what the LE costs on the aftermarket if one can get it at all :roll: but I'd love to have these in excellent transfers.
I do already have the French complete Eric Rohmer set, but most of the films contained in the SE are represented in ugly, degrained versions in that set - the Arrow releases are of much higher quality. So I'm assuming there is qualitative headroom for the four LE films as well.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#138 Post by bad future » Thu Feb 17, 2022 5:57 pm

Metrograph has The Aviator's Wife, Boyfriends and Girlfriends and Reinette and Mirabelle hosted on their small streaming platform. They've recently entered into film distribution, with a few blu-ray releases via Kino, so maybe this could be a future source of region A releases for these titles, and a cheaper way to get Reinette and Mirabelle at least, though that doesn't help with Arrow's other LE exclusives.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#139 Post by Rayon Vert » Tue Aug 15, 2023 5:05 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Mon Jan 08, 2018 12:21 pm
La femme de l'aviateur (1981)
I followed my own advice and started my rewatching journey through this box set here. It’s been almost exactly nine years since I first (and last) saw this, and I’m now no longer contemporaries of the characters, age-wise. I wonder how nearly a decade of life lived will alter how I see these films of youth (and all films I revisit for the rest of my days)? It’s interesting to note that in my initial writeup, I chastised Mumblecore films for not taking a page from Rohmer here, as he’s giving the movement a blueprint they almost never follow. It takes skill and practice and aforethought to make a movie feel breezy like this, and it only seem improvisational because the characters are so realistic (even in their bold flights of fancy). I will say that in the interim I’ve seen a few Mumblecore films that are worthwhile, and this reminded me a lot of the underrated black and white gem In Search of a Midnight Kiss in its unexpected detours and examination of how an unforeseen and fleeting encounter can color a day in a whole new way.

Sad to say, though, I think the second act here completely overshadows the rest of the film. Marie Riviere’s Anne is never remotely as appealing as Anne-Laure Meury’s Lucie, which as Jonathan Romney points out in his essay, is kind of the idea— Phillippe Marlaud’s Francois is oblivious to Lucie’s flirtations in the pursuit of Anne, a woman who feels pity for him and is less attracted and more flattered by his attentions, however suffocating. But the film suffers on either side of Lucie’s presence for her absence. Again, intentional, perhaps, but it weakens the rather circular arguments between Anne and Francois, which are hard to be invested in given how both teeter at the edge of a breakup for the entirety of the film. These are characters one date away from saying goodbye to each other forever (a la the pilot) and neither fully acknowledges it, though Anne makes a series of threats that seem less sincere than they probably are.

I read the ending here more optimistically than Romney does, though. Francois ultimately does make a move, however infinitesimal, in mailing rather than discarding the postcard, which indicates for me growth, however slight. But Francois remains a frustrating hangdog/lapdog figure, and it’s hard to feel for the results of his inaction and passivity against two assertive women, both more interesting than the flimsy cipher at the center. When I was younger i saw this as a film about the unexpected opportunities a chance encounter can hold. Now I see it more as an exploration of how those unexpected opportunities can be fumbled and dropped.
Well now it's already been five years since this post domino!

I'm quoting you because I've just watched this again and I very much agree with your take. The Lucie segment is really vitalizing in a way the rest isn't, really destabilizing the film. And yes Rohmer perhaps has a way of depicting characters' psychology very subtly and realistically, but that sometimes makes them hard to take (both Anne and François here). (The former is so unsteady in her emotions and reactions, what misery is she inflicting on any potential lover!)

Unlike you I have a hard time saying what this film is about one way or the other. In the audio interview on the Arrow disc, Rohmer says he was focused mostly on making a film about Paris, documentary style. It feels almost like the story is of secondary concern here. Rohmer's style makes you forgive (maybe not forget) to a large extent these weaknesses, but I do find it a frustrating experience. I sometimes wonder what kind of films he would have made if he hadn't focused so much on affairs of the heart, and often enough (or maybe just in appearance) seemingly trivial.

So his intention was to make a film about the city, and he mentions choosing the Buttes Chaumont as an artificial natural space within the city - but the positive or memorable effect the film again leaves me with is the idyllic, almost pastoral beauty in that natural space, even if human engineered, with once again the wind blowing through the leaves and plants (like so many of his nature scenes, it seems to me), the ducks in the water. The setting and the way it's shot is part of that segment's charm and power.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#140 Post by Rayon Vert » Fri Aug 18, 2023 12:36 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:46 pm
Le beau mariage (1982)
A film I wasn’t sure I had in fact already seen until I remembered taking a pic of the actress playing Beatrice Romand’s sister to send to my friend who looks just like her. If the film left no impact on first viewing, it leaves a strong negative impact on revisit. Here is Rohmer’s love of flighty youth taken to a bad extreme, as Romand’s Sabine decides, arbitrarily and (like everything else she will do) annoyingly, to marry. Not for love, but in an abstract notion of Marriage. Oh-kay. She is encouraged by her best friend, whom she treats like shit, to pursue a man no one could possibly read as interested in her.

Rohmer’s films are often filled with self-involved and delusional protagonists, but this one is just too much. I kept thinking about how Noah Baumbach, so strident a fan of Rohmer that he named his son after him, has made a lucrative and productive career out of highlighting ostensibly unlikable characters, and yet none of his films (for me) come off as poorly as this one. What’s the difference? A few things, at least: In Baumbach’s films, everyone is varying levels of self-important but also in specific ways tied to profession or contributory function— Sabine is an insufferable cipher with literally no redeeming qualities or contributions in her field (here art history); people call Baumbach characters out for their bullshit— Sabine is encouraged and enabled by her friends and family to wantonly pursue her foolishness and her incessant negativity is never checked (indeed, unbelievably, the object of her unwanted objection only turns her down because he’s not looking for a commitment, not because she’s annoying as fuck); Baumbach’s assholes are entertaining in the frustrations they invoke— Sabine is just frustrating.

Rohmer’s film is a miscalculation. I find little amusing in Sabine’s actions, and the film is as indulgent in her whims as her bestie. There’s only so much one can take of a character acting like a stupid jerk without comeuppance or, at the very least, humor and/or novelty in execution. This film is one long annoying note struck over and over.
furbicide wrote:
Thu Jan 11, 2018 11:54 pm
One thing that’s always puzzled me, as a diehard Rohmer fan (I’ve seen all his films, most more than once), is how much love The Green Ray gets. To me, it’s never been anything more than a middle-range work – Riviere’s protagonist is a bit annoying, the narrative is very first-world problems (I guess the same could be said for much of Rohmer’s work, but it grates particularly here) and the romantic ending is a little too Mills&Boon for my taste. It certainly still has plenty of charm, and I don’t actively dislike it the way I do Le Beau Mariage, but there are certainly Rohmer films I feel much more attached to.
I'm just a little more half-way through the revisit, but I'll my make comments right away. Yeah Sabine is such a willful character - the "proverb" indeed here ("Who doesn't daydream? Who doesn't build castles in the air?") takes aim at that so very un-Taoist trait of forcing one's ideas on life (although there's compassion also in the proverb), and in that way she's a direct descendant of the characters in La Collectionneuse and Le Genou de Claire for example. Not just people hard to like, but people who have an exaggerated notion of Will.

And it is a turn-off that gets compounded especially when considering furbicide's comments about first-world problems - everything revolves around extremely ego-driven, selfish desires (I think she is called out for being selfish at one point). Not the most appealing portrait of humanity! (depending on where you yourself are coming). I'll get to the end of the film to see if I grasp what Rohmer's point here is (which is often not the easiest for me)*, apart from doing something very self-consciously Marivaux-like. It almost plays up the stereotype (is there a grain of truth in that? not that I'm advocating that, or that the opposite would be better) about French people/society being more amoral, exclusively involved with their personal desires, and having a strong "Cartesian", intellectual stance towards life (which can be used to justify those desires).

But at the same time, and again, I am struck by the contrast between these trivial human endeavors and around these characters the beauty of the architecture and the stone buildings, and the nature constantly seen through the windows. It's like the beauty of the surroundings points up further the foolishness of these characters, or perhaps that larger context/environment redeems the whole thing with a sense of peace and grace. Kind of like God's beauty benevolently looking upon his creation, like a loving mother would look upon her young child behaving foolishly or "wrongly" (full acceptance and love).

*Does someone have a clear grasp of what lessons if any Rohmer is trying to impart about the willfulness of these characters?

This is indeed another "moral tale", which I think is in the meaning of what Rohmer meant by moral tale - not an ethical treatise but a study of psychology. See this 1973 interview for example (in French).
R.E. - Qu'est-ce qui légitime l'expression "contes
moraux" ?
E.R. - Quand je dis que mes films sont des
"contes moraux", cela ne doit pas être enten-
du dans le sens strict. Dans mes contes, il
n'y a pas du tout de morale et c'est même
l'inverse. L'expression "conte moral" doit
être comprise dans un sens littéraire et non
pas éthique. Du point de vue de la littératu-
re, le moraliste est celui qui autrefois étudiait
les moeurs ou les caractères. Entrevus sous
cet angle, mes films traitent de certains états
d'âme. Mes "contes moraux" sont l'histoire
de personnages qui aiment bien analyser leurs
pensées et leurs états d'esprit. C'est pourquoi
il y a peu d'actions et beaucoup de paroles, de
confidences, d'examens de conscience etc.
What he's saying is that moral tales doesn't mean ethical but literary. In literature, during earlier eras the moralist was the one who studied customs/mores (there isn't an exact translation for this) or characters.

But having said that, what is Rohmer's aim (if any) in studying these characters (attitudes, etc.), and is there a lesson imparted (even if it isn't a "moral lesson" like Rohmer says in that interview). And what's the one for this film specifically, if there is one?
Last edited by Rayon Vert on Fri Aug 18, 2023 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#141 Post by Rayon Vert » Sun Aug 20, 2023 10:59 pm

A few stray thoughts upon revisiting Pauline à la plage. Rohmer's plots for this series are made of such simple stuff. The misunderstanding at the heart here is like a slightly raunchier version of something you'd find in a Three's Company episode!

Ethics, honesty and truth in the game of love, desire and ego. Like Le Beau Mariage, the film starts off a bit disappointingly with characters, notably the Arielle Dombasle character, somewhat annoying in the superficiality of their self-dishonesty, but the film gets more interesting the further it moves along. The 15-year-old Pauline and her same-age beach boyfriend end up being the only ones truly moral and honest with themselves and others, while the adults go about their various ego-driven pursuits, whether they may be Nietzschean Lite (Henri) or naïvely, self-deceptively romantic. For all that, not one of them ends up being totally dislikeable (OK, Henri maybe a little), and the play between characters, and the performances of the actors, are always lively and original. The adults also come across as more caricatured "types", slightly artificial in their manner of expressing themselves, while the younger folk are more natural. Rohmer really chose well there with Amanda Langlet, whose short hazelnut brown hair and general demeanor recall slightly Haydée in La Collectionneuse (both are objects of potential control by the older people). Nice studied use of colors by Rohmer; in the accompanying interview, he speaks of the blue, white and red of the Matisse poster in the bedroom where Pauline sleeps at the end, and there are other scenes where you see those same colors highlighted in the dress of the characters and their surroundings.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#142 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Aug 26, 2023 11:59 am

All or most of the Comedies and Proverbs are films about young people, like several of his other films. Do we know why Rohmer took such an interest in them, and decided to focus on them for this series?

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#143 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Aug 26, 2023 12:41 pm

I just figure that Rohmer, like many of his peers, was interested in youth as a time when one is more acutely exploring, questioning, and developing their identities with the necessary doses of self-consciousness to feel stronger, change more cathartically, and appreciate experiences without accumulated desensitization

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#144 Post by domino harvey » Sat Aug 26, 2023 12:57 pm

Rayon Vert wrote:
Sat Aug 26, 2023 11:59 am
All or most of the Comedies and Proverbs are films about young people, like several of his other films. Do we know why Rohmer took such an interest in them, and decided to focus on them for this series?
Welllllllll Gegauff had an alternate theory in the the extras for one of the MOC Chabrol sets, but I don’t really want Rohmer canceled…

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#145 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Aug 26, 2023 1:21 pm

Fair, but both can be true since people inherently have multiple motives/parts driving behavior and interest.. like the complex characters in limbo in Rohmer’s films! I think the reason artists gravitate towards subjects like these is often sourced in part in curiosity but also as a way of working out and expressing their own conflicted parts of self, which is inclusive of a lustful self-interest but not mutually exclusive from, or superseding other passionate drives. Given that most people who are curious about exploring humanity have a certain emotional sensitivity, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rohmer was more in touch with his younger ‘child’ parts than primarily logically-minded filmmakers, which is reflected in the careful attention on younger characters - and perhaps also fueled multifaceted attraction to them

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#146 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Aug 26, 2023 1:40 pm

The appreciation interview by Richard Ayoade was very good. Lots of insights there and a close attention to what is unique in Rohmer and these films that warrant listening. I'm already forgetting them though! Seems he at least mentioned that this series focuses on young people.

I have to admit going through all these films again one after the other all this teenage/young adult stuff and the exclusive concern with romantic relationships and the obsessing over it is getting a bit much for me to take, somewhat dampening my liking of them. (Is the universe this small?) I find I have to take a step back from the content and focus on the form to keep my grounding. Reminds me why I don't like romcoms all that much.

Rewatched Le Rayon Vert and there is something special and a bit magical about that film because it's so documentary-like, partly improvised, the neat and unique music score, the playing cards that Delphine finds, constantly establishing the characters in the greater environment (one of the things Ayoade mentions). Love those shots of waves and lots of wind through the trees and leaves that seem to flush out the crying in her!

Love that bit when the camera just leaves Delphine and focuses on that little group of people discussing the green ray, and the science-knowledgeable older guy who explains it. Makes me think of Truffaut who would have certain things illustrated or explained in his films just for the love of learning.

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#147 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Aug 26, 2023 8:07 pm

I saw a few Rohmer films that I didn't (then) like before someone convinced me to check out Rayon vert before giving up on him completely. Yes, despite the fact that almost everything in it is completely "mundane", it also felt magical to me. (Maybe because I once had a summer that felt sort of like that also had an impact). Still my top favorite (but it got me to like almost all his films eventually).

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#148 Post by Rayon Vert » Sat Aug 26, 2023 8:58 pm

Is it me or are the best Rohmer films the ones with calendar dates?

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Re: The Éric Rohmer Collection

#149 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Aug 26, 2023 9:17 pm

Well, my no. 2 is Tale of Winter and my 3 is (probably) Tale of Summer...

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