Once again poor Beatrice Romand needs a bloke. She’s had enough of having it off with a married man. “I’m getting married” she tells him “to the man i decide on, who appeals to me. I’ll be very choosy. I’m different. I can do things my way”.
She is different. An odd gawky bird is Beatrice Romand; impulsive, impetuous, big-headed – and yet girlishly charming; and despite all her big talk and grand ideas about herself – vulnerable.
It’s the same old same old Rohmer: self-obsessed “my type, not my type” talk about finding love. About chasing or being chased. Films engrossed – and indulging – in intimacy. And even tho i get irritated by them – i feel sort of comforted to by all the familiar neurosis that trying to get into intimacy brings – the warm mess of human loving.
“You sound like you calculate every move. In fact you’re quite the opposite. You act purely on impulse. You’re insanely selfish” says blonde best friend Clarisse to Sabine (Romand) “No, wisely selfish” says Sabine.
She does comes across as calculating. And also impulsive. Contradictory and contrary in other words, as well as head-strong – “i tend to argue“.
She’s clapped eyes on Clarisse’s cousin “Edmond” and decided he’s the one. “I intend to make him like me. No man can resist me” (Is this girl conceited or what?!) “With a hard-working husband I’ll be freer to do what i want” (Is this girl selfish or what?!) “I’ll find his weak point, everyone has one. If he doesn’t show me some tenderness next time, i’ll insult him” (Is this girl manipulative or what?!)
So she goes on, with her wilful self-centred machinations: “Instinct tells the female to resist the male so that he’ll desire her (there’s some truth in that) I want him to desire me, to suffer“. You selfish bitch Sabine!
Only he’s not the one that suffers – she is. She’s expecting and waiting for him to call. Waiting. He’s not calling. So she’s calling him. He’s not answering. Avoided and ignored, she’s caught in the rejection trap. Eventually she has to go around to his office to sort it out.
“I don’t forsee any tie that will alienate my freedom” he’s saying to her in his sterile lawyerese. “If i get married i want to have chosen my wife freely” So he’s cottoned on to what she was up to. He hasn’t wanted to be made a husband out of. She’s crestfallen. Not so irresistible after all.
She gets into a tantrum:”There are thousands of men more handsome, younger, more interesting than you. Who are worth going after. You’re not!” – and storms out. Hasn’t snared The Husband. I suppose we should feel her selfish machinations have got the kicking they deserve – and yet i felt a tinge of sadness for her too. I think it’s something that Beatrice Romand brings to her character that makes you realise, yes – she’s a capricious little madam – but also there’s a charm about her that is affecting for being so fragile. (I’m starting to sound like a character in a Rohmer film now….Lol)
“I always knew i didn’t like him that much” she’s telling Clarisse. How fickle all this love business is! Now i like you, now i don’t like you. I love you – but only if you love me. I desire you, but only if you want me first, and want me more.
That’s the kind of maelstrom of conflicting, ambivalent, emotions that love and relationship mostly is – and which Rohmer, in these 6 Comedies and Proverbs, has tried to show. I’ve seen 4 out of the 6 – and they’ve been irritating and even infuriating to watch at times.
I liked this film much more than i did the first time i saw it. I don’t know why. Maybe i feel more indulgent of Beatrice Romands quirky, gobby, big-headed charm, more sympathetic towards her self-centred vulnerability.
But now I haven’t got any more Rohmer films to watch. That’s it!
I’ll be relieved not to watch any more. And yet i’ve a sneaky feeling i’ll miss not watching them too. Perverse.
His films show – with great sensitivity – how contradictory the nature of loving is, and also how much ambivalence there often is at the heart of everybodys heart.
Dir: Eric Rohmer, France
7.5/10
