La Collectionneuse (Eric Rohmer, 1967)

The fifth of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales that I've seen, La Collectionneuse is the story of two men, Adrien and Daniel, who stay at a friend's villa for a month in the summer, only to find that their friend has also allowed Haydee to stay. They play games with Haydee, sleep with her, are cruel to her, and think about morality, much like in Rohmer's other films. This is one of my least favorite Moral Tales, because of the uttery despicability of Adrien and Daniel, two incredibly pretentious, cruel, empty young men. Adrien is the protagonist and narrator of the story, and his rationalizations of his behavior toward Haydee (with whom he has a quasi-affair even though he has a girlfriend whom he professes to love very much) are among the most pompous I've seen in film history. Daniel and Adrien use Haydee physically and then abuse her verbally, especially in one particularly vicious scene, where the two sit a few yards from Haydee and discuss what an 'immoral slut' and 'collector' of men she is, and how she occupies the lowest rungs of society with her masculine (my word) behavior. Perhaps they see themselves in Haydee, and hate her for it? Anyway, Haydee never quite fights back, only ignores them and occasionally half-heartedly defends herself. To her character, though, she does not take their idle insults to heart, recognizing that they are just another way to fill up their empty lives by putting down others. Haydee is a likeable character, with her lack of shame for her sexual pursuits. The movie is really brought down, though, by the two main men in the film, who are so unlikeable that it just gets boring. Once Daniel leaves the film, the final third is rather boring, even, and the ending, predictable as it was, left me angry. La Collectionneuse represents the men in Rohmer's cycle at their worst: pretentious, angry, and misogynistic, traits that get tiring rather quickly. 6/10 RIYL: Truffaut at his most immature

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Bakery Girl of Monceau and Suzanne's Career (Eric Rohmer, 1963)

These two short films are the first and second installments in Rohmer's Six Moral Tales cycle, and, in true Dana style, the third and fourth in the series I have seen. I always do that, and wonder later if my perception of the individual films and the series as a whole would have been different if I had actually seen them in order. Six Moral Tales is a pretty straightforward series, however, and I see the evolution of the male protagonists without having to see the films in straight order. Anyway, these two shorts represent the beginning of the series, about young men who are chasing after women no matter the consequences. The Bakery Girl of Monceau involves an unnamed law student (played by Barbet Schroeder, who later became a director himself) who falls in love with a girl he meets on the street. He waits during his lunch hour on the street where they met to see her again, but starts frequenting a bakery when he doesn't meet the girl. He leads on the bakery girl, finally inviting her on a date, when he meets the first girl and abandons the bakery girl. Many men's disregard for the feelings of random women is at center here - Rohmer makes the law student despicable in a small way, but not enough so he's incomprehensible to the audience. At the end, when the student and the woman, now his wife, go again to the bakery, a new girl is behind the counter, and it's uncertain whether the student even remembers the other bakery girl or not. Suzanne's Career is almost an hour, twice the length of the pervious film, and details two "friends" (who seem not to enjoy each other's company too much), Bertrand and Guillaume, who are both interested in Suzanne. The two men use Suzanne brutally, making her pay for every outing and giving almost nothing in return. Guillaume is fundamentally different than Bertrand; he is a playboy, who spends a lot of money and uses everyone around him. Bertrand, in contrast, is uncomfortable using Suzanne (but does it anyway) and is a more loyal man than his friend. The two men seem to despise each other, and in many ways, this film is more about their relationship than either one's with Suzanne. But Suzanne wins in the end; she abandons both men and gets engaged to another, unknown man. Bertrand wants to believe that Suzanne is a bad, immoral girl (he accuses her of stealing 400 francs from her when everyone else, audience included, is sure it was Guillaume), and that he has been tricked by her. Suzanne represents to these men the mystery of women, the things about them that they can never understand. These two films are a good start to the Six Moral Tales cycle, and represent youth - the beginning of love and morality, when men are callous about both those things. 7/10 RIYL: French New Wave, Jules & Jim

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Love in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, 1972)

The last in Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales, Love in the Afternoon (sometimes known as Chloe in the Afternoon) is a simple-seeming story of a man, Frederic, who is married to Helene and has two children with her, but meets in the afternoons with Chloe, the ex-girlfriend of an old friend. Rohmer's main moral question in this film is what constitutes cheating? Frederic and Chloe simply meet to talk for most of the movie, and it more or less never gets physical, but is Frederic being faithful to Helene? He admits that he does not want to be in a relationship with a woman who knows all his secrets, and would rather have someone outside the relationship to talk to, but what kind of relationship is that? Chloe reappears in Frederic's life after six years away in America. She is not conventially beautiful, but she is immensely attractive in spite of (or because of) how directionless her life is and how desperate she is. Chloe stays with any man who will offer her something, and while Frederic is at first a target, and also afraid that Chloe is only using him, she stays with him even though he doesn't offer her anything other than a companion to talk to and someone to imagine having a child with. Frederic, as I said, is quiet (but not unhappy) in his marriage to Helene, and he even has an English nanny who walks around naked with whom he could have an affair if he wanted. In Chloe, he finds a companion, a woman with whom he can have a conversation. At first, he seems to be immune to sexual attraction with Chloe, and while that eventually changes, their relationship seems more platonic than sexual at any given moment. Love in the Afternoon is a powerful rumination on the nature of love and lust, and relationships between men and women. As Chloe, Zouzou (anyone know anything about her?) gives a radiant performance, making the audience believe that a loser like Chloe could actually be so luminous to make a man like Frederic fall in love with her. Rohmer leaves the questions very open-ended, and through his non-judgemental exploration on fidelity and adultery, gives us some good insights on the nature of love. I am looking forward to watching more of the Moral Tales. 8/10 RIYL: Truffaut, French New Wave

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