Eric Rohmer (1920 - 2010)
The Autopsies Group offers a tribute to the late Eric Rohmer through a collection of objects, now obsolete or nearly so, which his films help us to remember. While we might not in principle embrace "auteurism" as a theoretical or conceptual model, remembering Rohmer's career by means of the spaces and objects around which his films circulated gives us a sense of the era that he captured. Our Rohmer museum reminds us of the fantasies of the modern that the so-called "New Wave" fueled.
Le Signe du Lion (1959)
At the beginning of Le Signe du Lion, Pierre is having a party to celebrate his aunt's inheritance. One friend (played by J-L Godard) is sitting by the record player and keeps jumping the stylus back to repeat the same music.
When Pierre finds himself on the streets, as he has no money to pay for a room, he wanders into a café. This shot is taken from outside the café, as Pierre walks into it, revealing boys playing with a pinball machine.
In the same café with the pinball machine, in Le Signe du Lion, Pierre goes up to the bar to ask the waitress if she has seen one of his friends, Willy. The way this shot is
framed, we discover what tills looked like in the 1959.
framed, we discover what tills looked like in the 1959.
Pierre's friend, Jean-François, works for Paris Match. After this shot of a woman typing a telegraph, the telegraph itself is shown, where Jean-François is asked to stop his documentary in South Africa, and instead cover the story of Nixon's visit to Moscow.
[texts by Sheena Scott]
[texts by Sheena Scott]
'Place de l'Etoile' (1965)
This still from 'Place de l'Etoile,' Rohmer's episode of Paris vu par... (1965) does not show a dead object as such, but I show it here in this homage in gratitude as the sketch film provided one of the inspirations for the subject of my PhD research on the transformation of Paris in the 1960s. In the film's introduction, the narrator explains that since 1964 a portion of the square and neighbouring streets has been cut off by building-site barricades for the construction of the métro-express - later branded réseau express régional (RER, or regional express railway). The building work plays a role in the film by disrupting the habitual daily flow of commuters as they exit the metro to head to work, including the film's protagonist Jean-Marc. The concrete production plant and crane alone might not date the image precisely, but the blackened Arc de Triomphe does - late 1964 or early 1965. The monument, shown in the film to be visited only by tourists, war veterans, and heads of state, was covered in scaffolding in March 1965, shortly after Rohmer's film was made, for a thorough cleaning and major restoration of its sculptures.
[text by Jacob Paskins]
[text by Jacob Paskins]
Une Etudiante d'aujourd'hui (1966)
Une Etudiante d'aujourd'hui is a short documentary film about changes to the higher education system in France in the 1960s that brought a significant growth in the number of female students in French universities. While the film shows new buildings that look startlingly modern compared to the old Sorbonne, such as the new science faculties at Orsay and Jussieu, it also shows a number of objects that have almost completely vanished from everyday life and that seem today like relics of another era. We see a mechanical cash till, that would noisily ring out in shops and cafés everywhere before the introduction of electric tills, LCD screens and printed receipt rolls. In the university library, two students search through scores of wooden drawers to find book details in the cross-referenced card catalogue. Once visible in every library, this apparatus has by and large been replaced--except in rare specialised collections--by computerised catalogues.
[text by Jacob Paskins]
[text by Jacob Paskins]
La Collectionneuse (1967)
In La Collectionneuse (1967), a young woman named Haydée fills the long summer days and nights spent in a country villa near Saint Tropez swimming, reading, smoking, drinking tea--and talking and flirting--with her two summer housemates Daniel and Adrien. During the summer recounted by the film, to distract herself from boredom, and out of a desire to try things out to see what fits her best, Haydée experiences a number of encounters with men. Most often she arranges her dates by dialling the telephone. Jealous, Adrien and Daniel resent Haydée's behaviour and brand her a 'little tart.' Haydée has in her memory at least three telephone numbers which she can quickly dial in succession in a moment of desperation.
When Haydée and Daniel enjoy a brief fling, the couple momentarily gang up on Adrien. Taking shelter from the heat of the sun (in the film still below), the pair listen to music on a semi-transportable record player, which, along with the telephone, is one of the few modern luxuries in the rural villa.
Rohmer and the telephone [text by Jacob Paskins]
Ma Nuit chez Maud (1969)
Maud is talking here to her ex-husband by means of a dial phone,
while Jean-Louis is cooking and meanwhile listening to her talk.
while Jean-Louis is cooking and meanwhile listening to her talk.
Jean-Louis calls Maud's office and asks her assistant to
put him through to her, but finds out that she has gone.
put him through to her, but finds out that she has gone.
Embracing contemporary technology through advanced visual and audio
equipment, the analogue television set and turntable in the back of the room
evoke the aural textures of Maud's modern house.
equipment, the analogue television set and turntable in the back of the room
evoke the aural textures of Maud's modern house.
Jean-Louis (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is the only character who uses
matches to light a cigarette rather than fluid-filled lighters. In this
still, he strikes a paper match in front of Maud.
[texts by Chanchul Jung]
matches to light a cigarette rather than fluid-filled lighters. In this
still, he strikes a paper match in front of Maud.
[texts by Chanchul Jung]
Le Genou de Claire (1970)
In the sequence where we see this radio/cassette player, in Le Genou de Claire, Claire and her boyfriend are picking fruit from a tree. This is the first instance when Jérôme (played by Jean-Claude Brialy) notices Claire's knee. Laura and her friend are sitting at a table where the radio/cassette player is placed, but isn't being used.
[text by Sheena Scott]
[text by Sheena Scott]
L'Amour l'après-midi (1972)
This is a still of Frédéric's desk, at his office in L'Amour l'après-midi. I wonder how different the stationery in an office must be today. The inkpad with blotter along with rubber stamps have now disappeared from most offices. An ash tray, given the smoking ban nowadays, no longer belongs among the objects that furnish an office.
Through his secretary, Frédéric found a job for Chloé at a clothes shop in L'Amour l'après-midi. In this shot, we see Frédéric going in the shop to meet Chloé. You can also see an old parking meter in the foreground.
Frédéric, in L'Amour l'après-midi, has come early in his office before the arrival of his secretary. He is seen typing a document, and answering the phone - taking a call that is, in fact, for his secretary.
[texts by Sheena Scott]
[texts by Sheena Scott]
[Rohmer at work, 1978]
Rohmer during the rehearsals for Perceval le Gallois (1978) from Jean Douchet, En répétant Perceval (1978). For a discussion of other films showing Rohmer at work, see Senses of Cinema article here. For two fascinating accounts of Rohmer's courses on cinema, see Julien Mahon, "Lessons from Eric Rohmer," May: Quarterly Magazine, No. 3, and Alain Hertay, "Eric Rohmer, Educator," trans. Roland-François Lack, Senses of Cinema, April 2010.
La Femme de l'aviateur (1981)
La Femme de l'aviateur is for my purposes now a 'polaroid movie'. The film moves through Paris with its main protaganist Francois in pursuit of the 'aviateur' whom Francois has seen with his fiancee, Anne. As it does so, we watch Francois engage with many objects now either dead or dying. He calls Anne at her office from a phone box (figs. 2-3, below), writes to her and another girl on postcards (figs. 6-7, below) while Anne, in her work place, is surrounded by dead technology: a typewriter lies on one desk, an antiquated phone on another (fig. 1, above). Dead object-wise, however, the polaroid takes centre stage (figs. 4-5, below). A lengthy sequence mid-way through the film shows a girl--who Francois has met while following the pilot--manipulating two tourists into taking a polaroid of her with the pilot and his 'wife' in the background. Her ruse fails; however, this sequence wonderfully demonstrates the experience of taking polaroid photos: the suspense of waiting for the colours to come through, the subsequent satisfaction or disappointment, and the novelty of being able to see, as well as to hold, your photograph almost immediately. The presumed dead polaroid we are told, will be soon revived. Let's hope so, because, as La Femme de l'aviateur demonstrates, the polaroid never lost its charm.
[text by Karolina Kendall-Bush]
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Figure 7
Pauline à la plage (1983)
Finding dead objects in the scenes of Pauline à la plage is easier said than done. The film is set on the Normandy coast, moving between the beach and holiday homes of its characters. The obsolescent bodies of dead technologies that clutter many a films' work-place scenes are nowhere to
be found. This place of pleasure is instead littered with the semi-clothed bodies of its protagonists. The typewriter above (which seems to be one of the best-looking Olivetti models) and the record player with its accompanying LPs, however, do make brief appearances. They impinge little in the action, nonchalantly turning up in the background of sequences or as incidental props (for example, the LP used to shade the eyes of Henri). They especially serve as fleeting reminders of a life that might be lived away from the beach.
[text by Karolina Kendall-Bush]
