Angelus News | June 3, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 11

will demonstrate.
But summer is ironically something
of an iceberg; there’s far more beneath
the surface. Rohmer perceived that
summer wasn’t just ballparks and
barbecues, but also an opportunity for
gnawing spiritual desolation. He understood
that summers are frequently
melancholic, the heightened pressure
to enjoy yourself preventing the necessary
relaxation to achieve it. His most
fertile filmmaking is found in shortfall
between expectation and reality.
A Rohmer vacation is often about
taking a break from yourself rather
than your job. Away from the bustle
of Paris and surrounded by strangers
at the beach, his characters find the
anonymity to become their true selves
or ponder when there isn’t a true self to
discover.
Jerome from “Claire’s Knee” is an
official diplomat yet conducts his
love life like he’s conquering Poland.
Delphine, the heroine of “The Green
Ray,” bounds from beach town to
beach town looking for a sense of
relief, only to have her unhappiness
already waiting for her at the train
station. Inevitably, his characters find
out in dawning horror that they are
themselves wherever they are.
But Delphine, at least, is trying to
find the solution. His other characters
have already settled into themselves.
They make no pretense of summer
as a time of personal growth, unless
you count melding into the surrounding
vegetation. The “heroes” of “La
Collectionneuse” don’t merely lounge,
they sprawl across furniture like lizards
sunning on a rock. The heat seemingly
beats them into submission, and the
only thing that rouses them out of
indolence is attraction to the opposite
sex.
While his scenes are fundamentally
chaste, Rohmer is still French, so
certain ribaldry is never far from the
mind. Most of his films explore the
conscious transience of the summer romance.
The knowledge of a deliberate
endpoint emboldens his characters for
casual dalliances, in whatever form.
The two leads of “La Collectionneuse”
fight over a single girl, and the
dopey protagonist of “A Summer’s
Tale” finds himself juggling three separate
romances. Jerome from “Claire’s
Knee” doesn’t even get that far,
spending his languid efforts arranging
a situation where he only caresses the
titular knee.
All these encounters are inherently
shallow because they treat summer as a
fantasy, while Rohmer recognizes it as
Eden. Away from the pettier distractions
of society, existence becomes
idealized, or perhaps actualized. His
baser characters don’t recognize this,
and by regarding vacation as an escape
from life, their whole life becomes a
vacation. They live for today, not in
the Ecclesiastes sense but to avoid any
grander commitment.
Rohmer doesn’t judge his creations,
but he clearly admires those who take
the opposite approach. Delphine from
“The Green Ray” refuses to settle for
an unsatisfying vacation, and hence an
unsatisfying life. Her proactive stance
pays off when she finally finds true
love at the end, in the waning days of
August. Felice in “A Tale of Winter” is
similarly rewarded. After losing contact
with her summer love, she refuses to
commit to any other man, trusting that
through some miracle they will find
each other again.
Rohmer values faith more than any
other virtue. These women smuggle
the spirit of true summer back with
them into cold reality, and as a reward
he lets them keep the spoils past September.
Five “Rohmer Summer” recommendations:
“La Collectionneuse,” “Claire’s
Knee,” “Pauline at the Beach,” “The
Green Ray,” “A Summer’s Tale.”
Joe Joyce is a screenwriter and freelance
critic based in Sherman Oaks.
June 3, 2022 • ANGELUS • 37