Today the French film director Eric Rohmer is 88. He is still making films, though I have trouble seeing his latest ones here in Australia. In fact, I don’t believe that any are even available here on dvd. Occasionally they turn up on SBS (I recall being happy to find L’Anglaise et le duc on SBS one Christmas night), and at the cinema (the Mercury showed a number of his films as part of their cinematheque program a couple of years ago).
For those in Adelaide you can go to Kino on Goodwood Rd where you can hire just about all of his feature films up to the mid 90’s (as long as you still have a video). Last time I went past it looked like they weren’t there anymore, I no longer live in the area so I’m not sure what’s going on there.
My recommendations:
- Perceval le Gallois (1978)
- Ma nuit chez Maud (1969)
- Conte d’hiver (1992)
- Le Rayon vert (1986)
- La Femme de l’aviateur (1981)
though I must say that I have enjoyed all of his films that I’ve seen. I think only Ingmar Bergman could possibly compete with him as my favourite director. They are quite different from each other so I can’t compare directly, but it’s fair to say that the right mood is required for a Bergman film, but I’m always in the mood for a Rohmer one.