RIFLE RANGE BOY

L'Amour l'apres-midi (Love in the Afternoon) 1972; French This French language offering by master filmmaker Éric Rohmer is another one of those intelligent movies that questions love, sex and platonic relationships between man and woman. It is done in non-melodramatic and judgmental fashion. Frédéric, a successful lawyer, with an English language lecturer wife, a daughter and another child on the way appears like a bourgeoisie who had his life all paved in front of him.  He likes women watching and reminisce the carefree days before his marriage. He is just a fantasiser and is a basically monogamous and doting father. One day, a female friend from his past, Chloé, an ex-girlfriend of his best friend appears in his office. She seems like an ambitionless, living for the moment, happy go lucky kind of a girl who was fun material rather than wife material. She goes in and out of jobs, disappearing and emerging like a plunging h...

La Collectionneuse (The Collector, French;1967) Director and Writer: Eric Rohmer The 4th offering of the 'Moral Tales' by Eric Rohmer is again another film about love and morality involved. Here, the protagonist who is the narrator is telling his point of view about his uppity moral values and degrading of a fellow tenant of a bungalow in a French countryside. The story with the introduction of the three main character - Haydée  (a curvaceous body perfect 20 young lass, carefree and impulsive); Daniel (a painter who has his own high thoughts about himself); Adrien (the protagonist is introduced engaged in a tête-à-tête with his girlfriend and her girlfriend about beauty and attraction). Adrien is a antique collector who goes to the country side for a getaway. The painter Daniel is also there. The serenity of the bungalow is somewhat disturbed by the presence of a carefree easygoing Haydée. The presence of different men to take her out every eveni...

My Night at Maud's (Ma nuit chez Maud, French; 1969) Director: Eric Rohmer No, this is a description of mind boggling nocturnal tryst at Maud's place but rather on the intellectual discourse on life, religion, Pascal (French mathematician extraordinaire) and his mathematical equation of probability, occasional flings, guilt, original sin, grace, etcetera.... As in the other 'Moral Tales' series, (#3/6), this film does not preach or take sides on moral codes but rather discusses philosophy of life without being judgemental. A glaring difference in Rohmer's films that I have seen so far is the absence of background music score. The only sounds coming from the movie is the dialogue and the incidental things in the story, e.g. moving of furniture or street cars honking! After staying in Canada and Chile, Jean-Louis, an engineer with Michelin, a born again Catholic, is back in Paris. It is Christmas and he is attending a mass. He laid his eyes on a blonde and he l...

Suzanne's Career (La carrière de Suzanne, French;1963) This second of Eric Rohmer's offering of 'Moral Tales' deals with the friendship of Bertrand, a pharmacy student, a shy, passive guy who befriends a guy, Guillaume, who is a blue bearded lady killer who is only interested in short affairs without the emotional baggage. Bertrand is interested in a girl named Sophie but is too morbidly shy to progress anywhere. In the meantime, Bertrand is inadvertently dragged into Guillaume's game to bed  Suzanne and use all her money. The unashamed Suzanne just follows Guillaume's whim and fancies with no self pride. Sometimes, Bertrand feels pity for Suzanne, especially when she became broke and jobless. Along the way, Bertrand also loses some money that he left for safe keeping in his textbooks. Not knowing whether the culprit was Guillaume or Suzanne, he just keeps it to himself. Bertrand tries to improve his relation with Sophie but it goes nowhere. A few months...

The Bakery girl of Monceau (La Boulangère de Monceau, French; 1963) Written and Directed by: Éric Rohmer This 23 minute mini presentation is the first of Rohmer's six series of 'Moral Tales'. These moral tales are not meant to appear overtly preachy or the actions to be good or black, but meant to stimulate our thinking faculty. Inevitably, the answers are never black or white depending on your morals. This offering is a narrative of a law student who is mesmerized by a lady (Sylvie) who passes through his path daily. After much hesitation and shyness, he managed to build some courage to talk to her amidst an accidental bump into her at a pedestrian crossing. Then she disappears. The protagonist, Bertrand, goes wandering around the vicinity that she was usually spotted during his free time trying to locate her, in between his preparation for his examinations. During these walks, he would regularly stop at a bakery for snacks. After many visits, he started...