Before becoming a filmmaker Eric Rohmer , whose real name Maurice Scherer, was first a teacher of literature, Germanic and writer. Ending his teaching, he became critical in various film magazines: Modern Times, The Journal of cinema, Les Cahiers du cinema .
He founded La Gazette du Cinema where he met Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol, other filmmakers who, alongside Eric Rohmer, are the source of the "New Wave". If
Eric Rohmer is best known for his feature films ( "My Night at Maud's" , "Claire's Knee" , "Pauline at the Beach" , "The nights of full moon" , "The green flash" , etc..), his short films are perhaps less well known. He has done in years 60 and 70, especially those featuring the city of Paris as "The Baker of Monceau" achieved in 1962 or "The career of Suzanne" shot in 1963, and are part of both Six Moral Tales . Eric Rohmer
also participated in the film "Paris vu par ..." which is a French film class of sketches, released in May 1965. From a total of 92 minutes, it brings together short films from six of the directors of "New Wave" : John Showalter, Jean Rouch, Jean-Daniel Pollet, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol. Each filmmaker will film a different neighborhood of Paris, in an ironic and even cynical. Eric Rohmer has focused on Place de l'Etoile.
In his films and especially his short films, Eric Rohmer has not done that to stage the city and the changing landscape. Like Francesco Rosi in "Hands Over the City" , Eric Rohmer has made the city a real character in his films and not just a decoration. The city moves, transforms lives, aging, dying of old towns, new towns were born, etc.. The city is one among the others and it is staged in the same way that other characters in the film. In a sense, one could consider as a filmmaker Eric Rohmer's urban space that uses images, not just to show that the but as a backdrop for the staging as a real human being. Eric Rohmer depicts and describes the city as both a rational being who obeys logical principles but as a creature of passion, sensitive and full of movement, tensions and contradictions. Eric Rohmer, a "geo-cinema" of the city? One might find this trend in movies with other directors of the "New Wave" as in "Breathless" JL Godard "The Wisp" of Louis Malle, " The 400 Blows " François Truffaut, or " Lift to the scaffold " Louis Malle.
Eric Rohmer has a close interest in the modern city and the upheavals of urban landscapes, especially when building new towns.
" The friend of my friend " shot in 1987 and is the sixth film in the series " Comedies and Proverbs ", was shot entirely in the new town of Cergy-Pontoise.
" Here in the suburbs is shown in an idyllic light. These young staff seem to vacation in a Club Med just outside Paris. From this city, we see indeed the towers of Defense, but also small valleys and a small lake on which Blanche and Fabien will live to the rhythm of windsurfing, their love. " One wonders whether the new towns do not embody this project a little crazy" towns in the countryside "Architects Planners 60s.
can get this movie on a DVD produced by editions Opening who had the good idea to add extra another short film by Eric Rohmer " The Metamorphoses of Landscape ". This is a documentary directed by Eric Rohmer in 1964 about profound changes in the Paris area during the 60s.
As a former teacher, Eric Rohmer has retained a taste for teaching and demonstration. Besides his films and short films, one can find on the site of the INA, a series of three documentaries in 1975 presented by Eric Rohmer and Jean-Paul Pigeat illustrating the new towns then under construction at this time.
- Children of a new town
- The diversity of the urban landscape
- The shape of the new town
At the end of the documentary "Metamorphoses of the landscape" , you can hear the following comment: In 1964, the transformation of the city and urban projects were then still hopeful for the filmmaker ...
"So let's take a look indulgent to finish this industrial landscape that is currently going down in history. The factories of the future will go into hiding in the countryside behind the bushes. On what was ailing the suburbs, soon rise a Clean, neat, tidy. Our reason to rejoice outweigh our regrets.Et we dare to be hopeful that the future framework of our existence in its rigor leave an open door to dream. "
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