Éric Rohmer

 
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Éric Rohmer

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Éric Rohmer
Birth name Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer
Born April 4 1920 (1920--) (age 87)
Flag of France Tulle, Corrèze, France
Years active 1950 - present

Éric Rohmer (born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer, April 4, 1920, Tulle, France) is a French film director and screenwriter. He is regarded as a key figure in the post-war New Wave cinema and is a former editor of influential French film journal Cahiers du cinéma.

Scherer fashioned his pseudonym from the names of two famous artists: actor and director Erich von Stroheim and writer Sax Rohmer, author of the Fu Manchu series.[citation needed]

Rohmer was the last of the French New Wave directors to become established, working as the editor of the Cahiers du cinéma periodical from 1957 to 1963, while most of his Cahiers colleagues (among them Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut) were making their name in international cinema.

Biography

Early career

His beginnings as a film director were halting, not completing his first feature, Le signe du lion until 1959, but it had little effect.

It was with his cycle of films entitled Six Moral Tales that his career began to take off. The first, La boulangère de Monceau lasts 20 minutes, the second 60 minutes, the rest are feature-length. Each tale follows the same basic story, inspired by F.W. Murnau's Sunrise — a man, married or otherwise committed to a woman, is tempted by a second woman, but ultimately resists the temptation. It was the third in the series (but the fourth to be filmed), Ma nuit chez Maud (1969) that brought international recognition and the following film, Le genou de Claire, secured it.

Later professional life

Rohmer's films invariably concentrate on intelligent, articulate protagonists who nevertheless frequently fail to own up to their real desires and it is the contrast between what they say and what they do that fuels much of the drama in his films.

Following the Moral Tales, Rohmer made two period films — Die Marquise von O... (1976) from a novella by Heinrich von Kleist and Perceval le Gallois (1978), based on a 12th century manuscript by Chrétien de Troyes. Rohmer is a highly literary man, and his films frequently refer to ideas and themes in plays and novels, such as references to Jules Verne (in The Green Ray), Shakespeare (in A Winter's Tale) and Pascal's Wager (in Ma nuit chez Maud).

He then embarked on a second series, the Comedies and Proverbs, each one based on a different proverb. This was followed by a third series in the 1990s: Tales of the Four Seasons. Recently Rohmer, now well into his 80s, has turned once again to period drama with The Lady And The Duke and Triple Agent. The Lady And The Duke caused considerable controversy in France, where its negative portrayal of the French Revolution led some critics to label it pro-monarchist propaganda. It has been well-received elsewhere, thanks to its innovative cinematic style and strong acting performances.

Awards & Nominations

Éric Rohmer was given the Career Golden Lion in 2001 by the Venice Film Festival

Filmography

Feature films

Contes moraux (Six Moral Tales):

Comédies et Proverbes (Comedies and Proverbs):

  • 1980 La Femme de l'aviateur (The Aviator's Wife) — "It is impossible to think about nothing."
  • 1982 Le Beau mariage (A Good Marriage) — "Can anyone refrain from building castles in Spain?"
  • 1983 Pauline à la plage (Pauline At The Beach) — "He who talks too much will hurt himself."
  • 1984 Les Nuits de la pleine lune (Full Moon In Paris) — "He who has two women loses his soul, he who has two houses loses his mind."
  • 1986 Le Rayon vert (The Green Ray/Summer) — "Ah, for the days/that set our hearts ablaze,"
  • 1987 L'Ami de mon amie (My Girlfriend's Boyfriend/Boyfriends And Girlfriends) — "My friends' friends are my friends."

Contes des quatre saisons (Tales of the Four Seasons):

Non-series

Short films

  • 1950 Journal d'un scélérat
  • 1951 Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak
  • 1952 Les Petites filles modèles (unfinished)
  • 1954 Bérénice
  • 1956 La Sonate à Kreutzer
  • 1958 Véronique et son cancre
  • 1964 Nadja à Paris
  • 1965 "Place de l'étoile" from Paris vu Par... (Six in Paris)
  • 1966 Une Étudiante d'aujourd'hui
  • 1983 Loup y es-tu? (Wolf, Are You There?)
  • 1986 Bois ton café (Drink your coffee it's getting cold!) (music video])
  • 1997 Fermière à Montfaucon
  • 1997 Un dentiste exemplaire
  • 1999 La Cambrure (The Curve)
  • 1999 Une histoire qui se dessine
  • 2004 Le canapé rouge

Works for theatre

Works for television

Episodes for En profil dans le texte

Episodes for Cinéastes de notre temps

Episodes for Aller au cinéma

  • 1968 Post-face à l'Atalante
  • 1968 Louis Lumière
  • 1968 Post-face à Boudu sauvé des eaux

Ville nouvelle (1975, four-part miniseries)

  • Épisode 1: L'enfance d'une ville
  • Épisode 2: La diversité du paysage urbain
  • Épisode 3: La forme de la ville
  • Épisode 4: Le logement à la demande

Episode for Histoire de la vie privée

non-series

  • 1967 L'homme et la machine
  • 1967 L'homme et les images
  • 1968 L'homme et les frontières
  • 1968 L'homme et les gouvernements

External links


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