Lumières Françaises Presents: Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales

July 31–August 6 • The Main Cinema

To celebrate the release of a new translation of French New Wave director Eric Rohmer’s first and only novel, Élisabeth, MSP Film's annual Lumières Françaises showcases Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales at The Main Cinema.

Fifteen years before completing his first feature film—and ten before beginning a transformative editorial stint at Cahiers du cinéma that would usher the journal, and French cinema, into a new era—the man who would become known worldwide as Éric Rohmer published a single novel. Released by Éditions Gallimard alongside the early works of Claude Simon and Marguérite Duras, Élisabeth was part of the first flowering of what would come to be known as the nouveau roman—and was also the “matrix,” as Rohmer himself later put it, of the images, ideas, and formal concerns of his first sequence of films, Six Moral Tales. (courtesy McNally Edition – Six Moral Tales courtesy Janus Films)

A limited number of copies of Élisabeth are available to order here and may be picked up at The Main Cinema after July 24.

ABOUT THE FILMS

The Bakery Girl of Monceau • 1963 • 23 min

Simple, delicate, and jazzy, the first of the "Moral Tales" shows the stirrings of what would become the Eric Rohmer style: unfussy naturalistic shooting, ironic first-person voice-over, and the image of the “unknowable” woman. A law student (played by producer and future director Barbet Schroeder) with a roving eye and a large appetite stuffs himself full of sugar cookies and pastries daily in order to garner the attentions of the pretty brunette who works in a quaint Paris bakery. But is he truly interested, or is she just a sweet diversion?

Suzanne’s Career • 1963 • 55 min

Bertrand bides his time in a casually hostile and envious friendship with college chum Guillaume. But when ladies’ man Guillaume seems to be making a play for the spirited, independent Suzanne, Bertrand watches bitterly with disapproval and jealousy. With its ragged black-and-white 16 mm photography and strong sense of 1960s Paris, Rohmer’s second “Moral Tale” is a wonderfully evocative portrait of youthful naiveté and the complicated bonds of friendship and romance.