Rohmer’s directing procedure suggests his opinion about the connection between film and literature that significantly sets him apart from the main goal of New wave - the struggle against a cinema based on adaptations of valuable literary works and opposition to creation of a specific film language independent of other arts
In 2007 Rohmer’s last film Romance of Astrea and Celadon was shown at the Venice Film Festival and on that occasion the director said that he would never direct movies again because it was a physically demanding job for which he no longer had any strength. From an author who had won many important international film awards and his first one in Venice with The Green Ray in 1986 and the life-time achievement award in 2001, this statement, despite being self-referentially ironic, seems quite convincing because at the time Rohmer was 88 years old. Even though he is certainly not the only filmmaker ever to have been active at such an advanced age, he was one of the few who consequently stuck to the basic principles of his directing style, which was formed half a century ago in the heyday of the French New Wave.
Nevertheless, when reminiscing about one of the last great modernist movements, only a few people will immediately think of Rohmer, even though he was the first among New wave directors to start making (short) films (Journal d'un scélérat, 1950). Just like his decade-younger colleagues, Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol and Rivette, he established himself as a critic and advocate of radical changes in French cinema in the renowned Cahiers du cinema, which he edited from 1957 to 1963. Besides, he was one of the first New wave directors to make a feature film - The Sign of Leo (Le signe du Lion, 1959). Nevertheless, unlike most of the others he did not become famous with his first film, but rather gained in significance in late 1960s with the film My Night with Maud (Ma nuit chez Maud,1969), which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and Rohmer for Best Screenwriter. This was the fourth film from his series of six Moral Tales, which consist of the short film The Baker's Girl of Monceau (La boulangere de Monceau, 1962) and medium length film Suzanne's Career (La carriere de Suzanne, 1963. This selection presents a rare opportunity to see these films because even in France they were only shown at the premiere in 1974 after the success of his feature films from the series, one of which is Claire's Knee (Le genou de Claire, 1970), maybe the best film in the strong competition of his extraordinary works.
The uniqueness and value of Rohmer’s style is perhaps harder to recognize from just one film than is the case with films by other New Wave directors, but the abovementioned series of films show clearly that his functional directing style without any special effects and close-ups and with natural lighting creates a unique atmosphere around everyday situations. They are connected with only hints of a real story and serve primarily as a tool for deeper introspection and defining of the characters’ psychology and their sensibility. To that end Rohmer primarily uses an almost literary form of speech (dialogue and monologue) in order to shed some light to the relationships between men and women, love, friendship, happiness, boredom, faith and most importantly the personal freedom that his protagonists have trouble dealing with and run away from it ending up in complicated duties related to work or marriage. Such directing procedure suggests his opinion about the connection between film and literature that significantly sets him apart from the main goal of New wave - the struggle against a cinema based on adaptations of valuable literary works and opposition to the creation of a specific film language independent of other arts.
However, the manner in which Rohmer uses literary language is very film-like because moving pictures do not illustrate it but rather present its counterpart or commentary thus giving new meaning to the combination. Such a manner of (not just) film thought defines Rohmer as a man and a filmmaker, further strengthened by his explanation of the title of his first series Six Moral Tales: “What I call a moral story is not a story with morale but a story that deals less with what people do but rather with what it is on their minds while they do it.”
Therefore the title of his other series of films from the 1980s, Comédies et proverbes, consisting of the other three films in this program, among which Pauline at the Beach is the most highly praised, should not be taken literally but rather as an interesting riddle and in order to understand what a riddle or proverb really means for this author. (Tomislav Kurelec)