Spine #:347
This is the second film of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales I viewed and I must admit, I went into it expecting to be disappointed. The reason for the pessimism was the first film I watched in the box set, a short entitled; The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1963, Spine #: 343). The 22min. long short is filmed in black and white and I found it to be bland and uneventful. Its a simple story of a man who runs into a woman, who he then asks out, she agrees then disappears so he searches for her everyday stopping at a bakery for a cookie to replace his lunch which he has sacrificed for the cause.
He ends up becoming familiar with the girl that works at the bakery and must choose between the two of them when the woman that he was searching for initially finally returns. Maybe it was the mixture of how subtle the film was with the shortness in its length that made me unable to be drawn in toward the characters or story, but Rohmer certainly rebuttals with Claire's Knee.
Claire's knee is the charming tale of a soon to be married man Jerome who happens to run into an old friend Aurora and gets talked into staying at a lake house with her for the month of July. Aurora's landlady's daughter Laura, develops a crush on Jerome but she is far to young for him to act upon it and thankfully avoids intimacy with her. Once July 10th comes around Jerome learns that Laura's half sister Claire is expected to arrive with her boyfriend Gilles.
When she arrives there is little to no interaction between Jerome and Claire until the next day (the 11th) when Jerome spots her and her boyfriend ascending a ladder to pick berries. This is where his infatuation for her begins... but this no typical attraction he has developed towards her, although Claire is a gorgeous young woman, surprisingly Jerome does not desire to sleep with her, he desires to caress her knee which he claims will be more difficult then attempting to sleep with her.
After sometime of pondering and scheming a strategy to accomplish his goal, Jerome with a helping hand from Aurora, manages to finally touch Claire's knee. This however does not completely satisfy his desire for Claire to willingly allow him to caress it though so he presses on. He begins to despise Claire's boyfriend Gilles and tries to sabotage there relationship, which causes Claire to break down. While Claire is sobbing, Jerome goes in for the kill and using the illusion of consolation he caresses her knee. After this mission was accomplished Jerome bids them all farewell and fortunately Claire and Gilles relationship survive the whole ordeal. In all its glorious sensuality, this film is a real gem and will prove an enjoyable viewing experience for most.
IMDB: ******** 8/10
NETFLIX: ***** 5/5
All the Moral tales are quite great. You must must watch My Night At Maud's. It's great! They're all good though. Bakery Girl is very subtle but I think that's part of the greatness of it. The man seems to be doing nothing very immoral, he flirts with the shop girl but he is leading her on and has no real interest in her and is playing with her emotions. Sadly it's a trait I see in a lot of men, especially when all they want is sex... they are not honest with the women for their own personal gratification. Women are like toys, creatures of amusement and not much more.
ReplyDeleteClaire's Knee is a fun one. I'd say watch My Night At Maud's and Chloe In The Afternoon next. Then maybe after that La Collectioniese and end with, whatever the title for the second one in the series is, I can never remember.
You're right about My Night At Maud's, It's a fantastic film and my second favorite of his six in the collection. Its unfortunate that you recognize the male character in Bakery Girl traits in a large number of men, although I know exactly what your saying since I happen to be one myself. From my observation it seems that people(because I have also seen many women) with this characteristic of promiscuity while lacking any desire of emotional connection are just lacking depth. They are such "shallow" lazy individuals that they refuse to look beyond the surface layer of a person to reveal the truly interesting and possibly complex intellectual underneath. It may be because they're not intellectuals themselves and are somewhat of "tools" (not to be crass) but what do I know?!
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