In a film-making career which spans more than half a century, Eric Rohmer has established a reputation as one of France’s most incisive, eloquent and free-spirited film directors.  Although few of his films have been great commercial successes, his unique brand of cinema has found a loyal following and most of his films have won critical praise, in his native France and abroad. 

Rohmer’s films are invariably about human relationships, usually between young people, and often involve a moral dilemma of some kind.  Often using non-professional actors and improvised dialogue, Rohmer’s films have a natural spontaneity which seems to reveal far more about his subject than a conventional scripted film could ever achieve. 

Rohmer’s real name is Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer.  He was born in Nancy, France, on 4th April, 1920.  In Paris, he started work as a journalist, then a teacher of literature.  He published a novel, Elizabeth , in 1946, under the name Gilbert Cordier.

In late 1940s and early 1950s, Rohmer’s interest in films brought him into contact with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Jacques Rivette and Claude Chabrol.  This group represented a new breed of film critic who were violently opposed to current trends in the French film industry.  With Rohmer, they would, in the late 1950s, win notoriety as reactionary film-makers, referred to collectively as La Nouvelle Vague, or the New Wave. 

Between 1956 and 1963, adopting the name Eric Rohmer, he worked alongside his future New Wave contemporaries as editor in chief on the celebrated film journal, Cahier du cinéma.   In 1957, Rohmer wrote the book “Hitchcock” with Claude Chabrol, an in-depth analysis of the famous director’s approach to film making. 

During the 1950s, Rohmer made a series of unambitious short films, including La Sonate a Kreutzer (1956).  His first full-length film was La Signe du Lion, which was released in 1959, the same year that Godard and Truffaut made their film making debuts.  Rohmer’s film was far more conventional and restrained than that of his New Wave contemporaries, which could explain why his film was overlooked whilst Truffaut and Godard won instant recognition.

Rohmer then began a project which was to take over ten years to complete.  This was the first in his celebrated series of films, Six Contes moreaux, or Six Moral Tales.  This series of films were probably influenced by Rohmer’s response to the permissive attitudes of the 1960s.  Each involves the tale of a man caught in the moral crisis of loving one woman yet being physically attracted to another – representing, as Rohmer might put it, the eternal struggle between human nobility and animal instinct.

The fourth film in this series, Ma Nuit Chez Maud (1969), proved to be Rohmer’s breakthrough.  The film was critically acclaimed at home and proved to be a commercial success in the United States, even receiving two Oscar nominations.  The next film in the series, Le Genou de Claire, also proved to be a great success. 

In 1964, Rohmer left Cahiers du cinéma to take up a post with French television.  Over the next few years, he would direct over a dozen television films, including popular documentaries for the "Filmmakers of Our Time" series.

After a brief foray into historical dramas with Die Marquise von O... (1976) and Perceval le Gallois (1978), Rohmer began work on his next series of films, Comédies et proverbes (Comedies and Proverbs), which occupied him for most of the 1980s.   These films took a farirly light-hearted look at French middle class society in the 1980s, broaching themes such as infidelity, promiscuity and a young woman’s search for love.  The most popular of these was the comedy Pauline à la plage (1983)(1983), whilst Le Rayon vert (1986) won Rohmer the Goldon Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 1986.

In the 1990s, Rohmer worked mainly on his next series of films, Contes des quatre saisons (Tales of the Four Seasons), possibly the most successful of his film cycles.  Each of these four films is set at a particular time of year chosen to illustrate a season, and each involves some form of emotional isolation.  The central character in each film is coping with a recent crisis and the film ends optimistically, looking forward to a better future.

Rohmer’s next film, L'Anglaise et le duc (2001), shows another surprising break with what has gone before.   This historical drama, set at the time of the French revolution, uses the latest digital technology, with actors embedded into painted backdrops. 

Eric Rohmer’s cinema continues to delight a devoted following from his fans whilst his more accessible films continue to appeal to a much wider audience.  A model auteur, Rohmer has doubtless been the inspiration and consolation for successive generations of independent filmmakers who set out not to make money but to tell a story.  It has to be said that few directors can tell a story as enchantingly as Eric Rohmer.

© James Travers 2002