Some years ago, I was introduced to Eric Rohmer's more mature work. The first Rohmer film I saw was Claire's Knee, which I reviewed when it was released. I loved the film, but didn't have a full context for it in terms of Rohmer's career or his Six Moral Tales series.
With the Criterion Channel, I caught up on his later films. I prefer his style of filmmaking and its similarity to Krzysztof Kieślowski's work. What I didn't know much about (as is often the case) was his early work, especially most of the Moral Tales.
Why any interest at all in Rohmer, who is arguably an obscure director to the modern moviegoer? Hitchcock is why.
As a young man, after reading Neil Sinyard’s The Films of Alfred Hitchcock and then Donald Spoto's The Art of Alfred Hitchcock, I turned to the French filmmakers and Cahiers du Cinéma critics. Claude Chabrol and Eric Rohmer wrote one of the first serious books on Hitchcock. Like Spoto's later book, they moved through the 44 films Hitchcock had completed at the time, noting now-standard Hitchcockian themes but uniquely positioning him as a Catholic director. Their book remains quite relevant.
Rohmer's early films exhibit his early command of the art form: the steady, perfect framing; the mise-en-scène that does not call attention to itself; the trademark shot of a woman removing her shoes, invariably from below a table.
The two early Moral Tales films deal with the moral problem of how men approach women to whom they are attracted. The narration in both reveals much about the men's self-imposed rules or ethical standards by which they judge others in the mating game and attempt to limit their behavior in some way.
The films are problematic for a modern audience, from the trivial (like the character in La Boulangère de Monceau always throwing his wrappers into the street) to the more serious and menacing approach to women.
It's difficult to know Rohmer's position on his two male leads' behavior, but at times the editing and camera angles are particularly menacing as they approach their "prey"—and the women are indeed portrayed as prey. Most of us have issues with the predatory behavior exhibited in both films. And sadly, the young men are mostly concerned with how to approach and win over the young women using whatever technique they imagine will work.