Imperfections in Everyday Liaisons Through Rohmer’s “Six Moral Tales”
In the revolutionary time of Nouvelle Vague, fathered by the pioneers of Cahiers du Cinéma, the name Éric Rohmer is one of the most influential of the movement. Known for his distinctive and unique style of filmmaking, Rohmer led the French New Wave as the academic dean, alongside prestigious directors Jean Luc-Godard and François Truffaut. Nobody has mastered the art of capturing people, their lives and stories in their most genuine and authentic form like Rohmer. His films are the epitome of stories filled with moral dilemmas and universal issues of human nature. His filmmaking style can be described as a subtle rhetoric, with vibrant yet discreet conversations that progress the plot at a much slower pace than other filmmaking conventions at the time.
For the substructure of “Six Moral Tales,” Rohmer himself defined a “moraliste” as somebody who is interested in the description of what goes inside man; he’s concerned with the states of mind and feelings. “Six Moral Tales” is a group of six films connected by the same string of different morals and is considered one of Rohmer’s most renowned works. Rohmer once stated that he wanted the films to express feelings that are buried deep in our consciousness. It takes us on the journey of six variations of similarly mundane tales of flawed protagonists who fight aimlessness within themselves through their behavior. With Rohmer’s razor-sharp observation and visually striking settings, the audience is forced to contemplate their own opinions and values. The 1927 American romantic drama “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” by F.W Murnou provided inspiration for the creation of these six engrossingly intelligent films. With aid from the notable names of Pascal, La Bruyère and Stendhal to lay the foundations of philosophical debates, Rohmer perfectly encapsulates the bourgeois and their way of thinking or living.
The fateful journey starts in the restless and lively streets of Paris with two short films that were funded by the director himself. “The Bakery Girl of Monceau” (1963) is a 24-minute, first-person narrative of love and romantic maneuvers with male hedonism becoming more prominent throughout the six stories. It follows an unnamed narrator (Barbet Schroeder) searching for a woman (Michèle Girardon) he’s fascinated with. As she goes on to disappear for some time, he fixates on a bakery girl (Claudine Sobrier) as a partial replacement of the first. Upon the initial woman’s reappearance, he transfers all his affection to seek a potentially serious relationship with her. The protagonist goes on to create his own definition of morality, justifying his feelings and emotions within himself.
The second stop in this journey is the 1963 short film “Suzanne’s Career,” with a runtime of 54 minutes. Although its plot is true to “Six Moral Tales,” it delivers an obnoxious portrayal of masculinity while discovering the complexities of love triangles and unresolved feelings hiding behind a facade of rationalism and sophistication. This film follows the narrator Bertrand (Philippe Beuzen) and the relationship between his friends Suzanne (Catherine Sée) and Guilluame (Christian Charrière), as he finds himself in the middle of their conflicts. As the story comes to an end after delving into the entanglement between love and friendship, Bertrand deems Suzanne the victor who finds happiness in love.
Initially planned as the third moral tale, “My Night At Maud’s” (1969) was delayed due to scheduling and shooting conflicts amidst the director and cast. Unlike the others in this group, this film is heavily rooted in Pascalian philosophy against religious contradictions and values, featuring a Catholic protagonist (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who ends up spending night at the enigmatic Maud’s (Françoise Fabian) place. Over the course of the night, they occupy themselves with discussions on code of belief, philosophy and fidelity. A stereotypical yet intense conservative drama; characters pondering their principles in light of intellectualism and crisis of faith. The film explores varying aspects of marriage, divorce, dignity, affirmation of chance and connections as contracted with science, mathematics and logic — all in a very subtle and theoretical manner. It is considered to be trajectory-changing for all six moral tales, as it is extensively abysmal, yet precise and ingenious; a characteristic feature of Rohmer’s filmmaking style, showcasing a unique approach towards the stories that are based on philosophical as well as religious perspectives. To capture the essence of these two polar concepts, Rohmer opted for black and white, as the color palette of the film for dealing with the extremes of head and heart, or chastity and seduction.
As seen in a majority of Rohmer’s films, the warm breeze of summer seems to trap the spirit of the moralistic point of view of life as opposed to lust and desire. “La Collectionneuse” (1967) uses a sultry villa in the luminous sun of the French Riviera to bridge the gap between the limits of attraction, desire, entitlement and self-delusions. It follows two womanizers: an art dealer (Patrick Bauchau) and his friend (Daniel Pommereulle), who are spending the summer together while Haydee (Haydee Politoff), who is known as the “collector of men,” arrives and disrupts the peace through her escapades every night. Both men begin to toy with her while she begins to manipulate them with naivety. Through a series of uneventful romantic situations and conversations, she displays a faux strength. Rather than emphasizing the plot, Rohmer is successful in redirecting the attention to the vibrant, sun-drenched setting.
“Claire’s Knee” (1970) is an indecisive story of a middle-aged man’s (Jean-Claude Brialy) obsession with caressing a young girl’s (Laurence de Monaghan) knee, who justifies his fantasy through naming it as a pleasure. Considered an elegant inclination towards resisting the urge for peculiar ambitions of the human nature, some have dubbed the film “a ‘Lolita’ that never crossed the line.”
And our journey ends where it started, in the bustling streets of Paris. “Love in the Afternoon” (1972) explores a happily married, mildly bored man (Bernard Verley) who dreams unusual scenarios regarding his unfulfilled desire, which become strong through a disillusionment with the world. He soon finds himself in a mystifying friendship with a former acquaintance (Zouzou). Through the narrator’s mind, Rohmer dissects the consequences and impulse towards infidelity as well as polygamy in a rhetorical manner concerning the principles of marital fulfillment and the spark of passion, or the tendency to resist unwanted temptations.
Without the use of extravagant music, soundtracks or unconventional camera angles, Rohmer’s method of filmmaking is precise and understated. These “Six Moral Tales” are subtle but subversive. Rohmer not only showcases the actions or doings of the protagonists, but also their way of contemplating decisions through their narratives and a naturalistic approach towards the different themes and diversity of morals altogether. Like his filmmaking style, his influence on cinema is grounded in subtlety, Richard Linklater’s “Before Midnight” being a prominent example. Lacking Godard and Truffaut’s flamboyance and noise, Rohmer disguises eroticism with a philosophical edge and visual serenity in a language-bound universe, which is usually driven by literary aspects that make a mundane routine to camouflage flaws and inadequacies in the name of morals.
To this day, Éric Rohmer’s impact on cinema remains strong with a realistic approach to depict ordinary snippets of life as an immersive art, and to steer himself away from typical filmmaking and screenwriting conventions.