Start with the Six Moral Tales. My favorite film by Rohmer is La Collectionneuse. That’s the first feature length one. I’d start with it and then move chronologically from there.
Start with the four Moral Tales features- it doesn’t matter which one except save Love in the Afternoon for last (you’ll know why when you get there). Claire’s Knee is a great place to start: it’s light, charming and very likeable.
Don’t go on to Comedies & Proverbs until you’ve finished Moral Tales. I think the C&P is his best cycle, but they’re also his most structural and uncompromising.
Back when film criticism worshiped the silent cinema and rued the advent of the talkies, Rohmer (never having made a film) wrote a radical article arguing that the purest cinema is a talking cinema. He then spent the next 50 years proving it.
The Green Ray, just ask Kenji
Personally, I would just start with Suzanne’s Career or The Bakery Girl of Monceau and go from there. I found them both charming films and either would be a fine introduction. Not that the others would be worse choices, but if you’re going to start with the Six Moral Tales, you may as well begin with the shorts and move through them in something resembling an order. You certainly have less to lose that way if you don’t like them at all, and if you do like them you can see Rohmer’s style develop and become more refined and complex which is interesting in its own right, but like I say, you really can’t go wrong either way.
Well said Alex, you got there ahead of me, The Green Ray. I love that film. Claire’s Knee and My Night with Maud are probably his most admired films otherwise, and i think they’re excellent too. I’ve a soft spot for My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, my wife’s 2nd fave after the Green Ray. The Bakery Girl of Monceau (an early short) is interesting alongside Guerin’s recent In the City of Sylvia.
Gringo Tex is right, Rohmer is much more cinematic than people give him credit for; In the City of Sylvia has been praised for lack of dialogue, its cinematic and visual expression, but even before i’d seen Baker Girl of Monceau it reminded me very much of Rohmer!
Rohmer seems to divide opinion, if you have the taste for the ones suggested, chances are you’ll like the vast majority.
I agree start with the Six Moral Tales.. You don’t really have to go in order with those, but they are all good so you may as well.. I think I started with La Collectionneuse and then moved on to Claire’s Knee. They are all very good though..
I’ve also seen most of his films from the Comedies and Proverbs series.. Pauline at the Beach and The Green Ray would be two good ones to start with in that series.. The only film I’ve seen in his Tales of the Four Seasons series is A Summer’s Tale, but I liked that a lot as well. I plan on watching all of the other films in those two series along with Perceval soon..
I enjoyed Les Amours d’Astrée et de Céladon too although it’s quite silly (but not in a bad way). Rohmer’s films are often light and fun, but they definitely don’t lack any depth either..
My favourites from Six Moral Tales are probably Claire’s Knee and My Night at Maud’s. Like almost everyone has mentioned before me, be sure not to miss out on The Green Ray in his Comedies and Proverbs series! I’m one of those who loves it too. My favourite Rohmer now, hands down.
One more recent one that I did see from him, which I didn’t like that much, was Triple Agent. I haven’t seen much late Rohmer in general though, so I don’t know how many of his later films fare.
Yes i think Triple Agent may be his weakest (i wasn’t too keen on Marquise of O either) but it’s not a dud, just a relative disappointment. This follows The Lady and the Duke in what might be considered a reactionary milieu; “White” Russian émigrés in one, the Aristos at the time of the French revolution in the other, and quite a bold move that in France to portray them sympathetically. Rohmer has done period films from time to time, sometimes pushing back some boundaries with artifice- in Perceval le Gallois it’s the strange obviously artificial sets, in Lady and the Duke there was unexpected CGI Parisian backgrounds. But most of his films deal with youthful contemporary relationships and have brought me consistent pleasure, often with a delightful fresh warm summery appeal. Astrée and Celadon merges the two approaches, period artifice and youthful romance
After seeing The Green Ray, I am starting on this set, which has ‘The Aviator’s Wife’, ‘A Good Marriage’, ‘Pauline At The Beach’, ‘Full Moon In Paris’, ‘The Green Ray’, ‘My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend’, ‘Love In The Afternoon’ and ‘The Marquise Of O’ in it.
I’ve seen this set before and thought about buying it. Is it worth it for someone who is completely unfamiliar to Rohmer or should I see a couple of his films first to get familiar with his style?
I can’t say until I see them, but it has the entire Comedies and Proverbs series in it plus supposedly one of Rohmer’s best (Love in the Afternoon) and supposedly one of his worst (The Marquise Of O).
One more recent one that I did see from him, which I didn’t like that much, was Triple Agent. I haven’t seen much late Rohmer in general though, so I don’t know how many of his later films fare.
Rohmer’s period films are almost purely theoretical in nature and should probably be avoided until one has a thorough understanding and love of his work. But they’re endlessly fascinating.
This follows The Lady and the Duke in what might be considered a reactionary milieu;
Rohmer is not a reactionary- he’s a conservative intellectual.
@Gringo: What exactly is theoretical about Triple Agent?
@Bruce: How one constructs a genre thriller through nothing but a series of conversations. It all goes back to Rohmer’s 1948 article “For a Talking Cinema” that kicked everything off.
Endlessly fascinating is right, at least for me. I think his period films are some of his most interesting works. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, Triple Agent, Lady and the Duke and,especially, Perceval le Gallios draw me in intellectually and still manage to provide an emotional wallop even though I’m not attached to the characters in the more conventional way.
Gringo Tex, yes i know Rohmer’s not a reactionary but the main subject matter of the 2 films i mentioned involved “reactionary” forces in a time of social upheaval and revolution, and the sympathetic portrait of aristocracy in the French revolution raised some eyebrows in France and beyond. Even as a loony leftie i don’t have a problem with that. The Lady and the Duke is not The Scarlet Pimpernel but another interesting study of relationships.
Bank
I am new to Éric Rohmer but I would love to explore some of his work. Which film would be the best to start with? Should I start chronologically within the Six Moral Tales series? Or should I skip the first two short films and go directly into his features. Suggestions?