Search - Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales - Criterion Collection on DVD

A magnificent college course in all things Rohmer

Stephen H. Wood | South San Francisco, CA | 02/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Though it retails for a steep $100, intellectual romantic adults will want to own the magnificent Criterion DVD boxed set of ERIC ROHMER'S SIX MORAL TALES. Each film is individually boxed in a slim case, and the whole set comes in an attractive and sturdy bookcase. It is not a viable rental item from, say, Netflicks because you will want to have the entire bookcase contents in front of you at once--see a movie, read the corresponding chapter in a separate 56 page booklet of critical essays on all six essays, maybe read the related pages in a 262 page paperback book with the movies in narrative form because the movies themselves are so hellishly talky that you will miss a lot of the English subtitles, then maybe see the movie a second time. This is a feast for lovers of Eric Rohmer, romantic films, and French movies. Actually, it is nothing less than a semester-long college course in Rohmer's work.



Moral Tale #1 is the 23 minute B&W "THE BAKERY GIRL OF MONCEAU" (1962). The essence of Rohmer is already at work this early--a male narrator infatuated with two different women; Paris locales and a semi-documentary style; 16mm with single takes after a long rehearsal period because of budget limitations; a lot of non-professional actors sometimes playing variations of their real selves and creating their own dialogue; non-stop intelligent conversations in French with exhausting English subtitles. A law student meets a lovely young woman, loses her, befriends a plump and likeable bakery employee, gorges himself on her pastry to be around her, then rather unceremoniously dumps her at the end when the first girl shows up. Incidentally, Monceau is a district of Paris.



Also in B&W and rather short (55 minutes), Moral Tale #2 is "SUZANNE'S CAREER" (1963). This has a lot of plot for less than an hour's length. Two college friends talk endlessly about college and life and love. When one befriends a woman named Suzanne, the other is filled with envy and self-loathing. So the two men compete for Suzanne's attention. Ah, but which man does SHE want, if either?



The remaining four Moral Tales are feature-length and genuine masterpieces of the romantic French cinema: MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S (1969), LA COLLECTIONNEUSE (1967), CLAIRE'S KNEE (1971), and LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (1972 and a.k.a. CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON). They are major Rohmer works that look expensive, but were, again, filmed in 16mm and a 1:33 ratio, composed of single takes with largely non-professional actors, and rented settings. The incomparable head cinematographer (the last three are in glorious color) is Nestor Almendros.



MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S (B&W) was a break-out hit in the United States, the movie that made Eric Rohmer's reputation internationally. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a rigid Catholic and mathmetician who meets blonde Francoise at mass, then brunette Maud in an apartment. He discusses his infatuation for both women with likeable good listener Maud in another Rohmer film with non-stop English subtitles that will have you wishing you knew French to catch all of the thoughtful French dialogue.



LA COLLECTIONNEUSE is probably translated as "The Collector", here meaning a collector of both women and art objects; the soft pastel color is just exquisite. Thank goodness, Rohmer decided to stay with color for the last three Moral Tales which, by the way, do not need to be watched in any particular order. This tale is darker and has two men--an art dealer and his painter friend--basically fighting over the bohemian Haydee in a villa on the Riviera. The script was written by Rohmer and all three actors.



My favorite Moral Tale is CLAIRE'S KNEE which brings us back to one man torn between two, or maybe three, women in a ravishingly beautiful lake and summer house setting. Planning on getting married when he shouldn't, Jerome wonders why he should be torn down to one woman; meanwhile, he meets Laura and Claire. Claire has a boyfriend. In a funny and kinky plot, Jerome likes young Laura a lot, but only cares about teenage Claire's right knee. I adore this film's idyllic summer lake setting in breathtaking color by, again, the great Nestor Almendros.



LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, Moral Tale #6, is also known as CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON, which is its videocassette title and title in Leonard Maltin's Video Guide. Business executive Frederic is happily married to a pregnant and adoring wife named Helene, but is surrounded by beautiful women in his Paris office. One day, an old girl friend named Chloe enters his life and provides the first real threat to his marriage. Should he have a non-committal sexual fling with Chloe and, if so, will Helene take him back. The chain-smoking and egotistical Chloe isn't worth it, Frederic. Stay with your lovely wife. This is a masterpiece.



Accompanying all six Moral Tales in this boxed set are two major bonuses that I mentioned before: a 56 page booklet of critical essays (ideally, you can see a movie, then read the essay about it); and a 262 page paperback book that has all of the tales in narrative form, written by Rohmer two decades before making the movies. Ideally, if you are new to Rohmer's "Conversation Cinema" with grueling non-stop dialogue and subtitles, you might want to read the film in book form, THEN see the movie, THEN read the essay(s) on the movie. Again, this is not a DVD boxed set, it is a full-fledged college course on Eric Rohmer's cinematic universe.



As if you needed more (this is Criterion), you also get several short films Rohmer made in the 1950's while he was editing "Cahier du Cinema"; a 1970's chat with Rohmer for French Canadian TV; a whopping 90 minute chat with director/writer Rohmer and producer Barbet Schroeder on all possible subjects and made expressly in 2006 for this Criterion DVD set; and a 20 minute English-language (thank you, God) video afterward from 2006 with American filmmaker Neil LaBute on why he loves Rohmer and what the cinema of Rohmer means to him.



The stupendous Criterion DVD boxed set, ERIC ROHMER'S SIX MORAL TALES, is not for everyone and will either exhaust or bore his detractors. Maybe you SHOULD rent one or two of them to see if you want to invest an admittedly very expensive $100 on the whole boxed set. But if you already love Rohmer, this DVD set will be your personal nirvana and a crown jewel in your video library. You may or may not want to loan it out to friends to make converts out of non-converts.





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