Mr. Rohmer's double life
Text/Mei Xuefeng
Published in the 958th issue of China News Weekly on August 3, 2020
In the new wave of French films, director Rohmer may be the lowest-key one. In the group that uses revolution and rebellion as the most obvious labels, his conservativeness is stunning. This kind of conservativeness is not only reflected in his private life, but also in his film aesthetics.
Compared with the glorious love histories of Truffau and Godard, the private life of Rohmer, who was a teacher of classical literature, seems rather dull. He was married very early and had two children. Although he is known for his love of drinking tea and chatting with his "Hou Girl", there are few scandals. The only thing that can confess his feelings and show his sorrowful side is in "Full Moon Reflected in Flowers", he is incarnate as the male girlfriend of the heroine of the film, half-false and half-truth complaining that women only appreciate his talent, but Do not see him personally at the sexual level.
Compared with the radicals of Truffaut, Godard, Jacques Levitt and others in the film critic group of the "Cinema Manual" in the 1950s, Rohmer's articles have the rigor and dullness of a film theorist. Compared with the critique of Truffau and others, he is more inclined to and dedicated to writing "articles seeking beauty" with complete logical ability and theoretical quality.
He also never used the "Cinema Manual" as a platform for small circles to sing and praise each other. He has a simpler and stricter moral self-discipline for intellectuals. For this reason, as the successor editor-in-chief of Bazin, he refused to praise these films unconditionally after the "Cinema Manual" editorial team started filming. This made Truffau and others, who have been motivated all their lives, worry about it. Brewing, a "coup" was launched on May 30, 1963, expelling their honest editor from the "Cinema Manual."
From the 1960s to the beginning of the 21st century, Rohmer’s works have been nominated for many major film festivals in the world, including Berlin, Venice, and Oscars, and won many awards. But until his death, his mother still thought that his son was just a middle school. teacher. This year is the 100th anniversary of Rohmer’s birth, and fans still have not penetrated this mysterious director.
I am definitely not a leftist
But it is precisely his invariability that makes him seem independent in the movie circle with romance, unconventionalism, and grandstanding.
Among those restless souls, Rohmer seemed too quiet. The leftist wave that swept the world in 1968 seemed to have no effect on him. When students in Paris set up barricades on the streets, he was still looking for actors for his "A Night at Mude House" without any distractions. Of course, he is not in harmony with the mud. Among his few expressions of political stance, he said: "I don't know if I am a rightist? But what is certain is that I am definitely not a leftist. The politics of a certain party or a certain regime. They promote the concepts of peace and freedom, but for their own interests, they will not hesitate to adopt dictatorship, lies, violence, martyrdom, obscurity, terrorism, militarism, warism, racism , Colonialism, genocide, human slaughter."
He took the initiative to build a high wall between his personal world and the outside world, just as he built a high wall between his personal life and his movie life.
His most famous name is Eric Rohmer, but this is only his name as a director. His real name is Maurice Sheikh, nicknamed Big Momo, and this name belongs to his family and friends. Of course, this is not surprising. It is strange that he did not let his mother know that he was a director throughout his life, because his mother who was born into a devout Catholic family could not accept this. He also worked hard to prevent his family from entering the movie until his death on December 29, 2009, when the 89-year-old was hospitalized with a cerebral hemorrhage, his "movie family" met his real family. On this day, François Echegare, the main producer of his later films, saw Rohmer's family and children for the first time in front of his hospital bed.
The perfect match for 16mm 4 to 3 picture format
This kind of weird persistence is commonplace in his film career.
He insisted on the idea of amateur film making all his life. Of course, there are financial reasons for this persistence. He is known for being stingy. He once quarreled with creators because he was unwilling to pay for coffee. Of course there were character factors, but more reasons were that he could not stand anyone Interference in his works and low cost allowed him to gain true creative freedom.
But in the final analysis, the reason is aesthetics. He was once disgusted by the fact that the high-quality French films are out of reality. He deliberately kept the author's absence and the transparency of the medium in his works, and used a simple way to express the truth. Not to whitewash it. The 16mm, 4:3 picture format is a perfect match for his request. The lightness of 16mm gives him more freedom to record the characters in his movies, and the freedom to record the real space without disturbing the reality. This is also the "Pilot's Wife" which confuses the boundary between the record and the plot. The reason for the surprise. The usual mediocre picture format consistent with TV satisfies his requirement for simplicity. He never wanted to make the movie visually scare the audience from the first sight.
This extremely cautious person has written extremely detailed scripts, and he will also study all aspects of the space he shoots early. He was afraid of losing control, but he embraced accident at the same time. In his first feature film "Leo Constellation", all the shots were taken once and never shot a second time. In his film career, several times his actor appeared dissatisfied with his performance and asked the director to let him act again. He couldn't hold back the actor's soft and hard bubble and agreed to them, but when the film is finally released, his actor will find that the first one is still used, even if it is flawed.
He has been passionate about that kind of emotional subject all his life, but he doesn't like that kind of extremely dramatic story. He likes to discuss morality. One of his most famous series of works is called "Six Moral Stories", but when it comes to real value judgments, he is always ambiguous. According to the current words, he has been shooting a cheating and derailed love triangle all his life. His protagonists are all scumbags, but they openly discuss their own scumbag behavior, which gives them a shameless innocence.
His films are always full of subtle irony. His first film "Leo Constellation" is like this, the millionaire's property inheritance has repeatedly molested the ambitious artist. He became a beggar when he thought he had it, and when he was desperate, the inheritance right fell on his head for no reason. In "A Night at Maud’s House", the protagonist rejects the bold and glamorous young woman and chooses the holy girl who believes in God, but in the end, he finds that the wife he finally chose is the mistress of the former husband of the glamorous young woman who has refused. In "Full Moon in the Flower City", the heroine gives up the slutty nightlife and returns to the family, only to find that the boyfriend who has been stalking her has a new heroine.
The protagonists in his movies are all patients with choice difficulties. They hesitate between their physical instincts and rational choices, and toss and turn between their morals and desires. They all love to discuss their actions, not to act; to talk about making love, not to make love; to discuss their choices, not to choose.
For example, in "Carat's Knee", the protagonist and his ex-lover have a long story to analyze his cravings-Carat's knee. He was obviously not interested in Sister Carat's embrace, but was interested in Carat's frosty knees. This G-spot, which is beyond common sense, illustrates the perversion of desire.
The anthropologists in "Pauline on the Beach" seem to have exactly the same logic. Baolian's perfection became a tyranny, which made her lose her uniqueness. As for the vulgar female peddler on the beach, her vulgarity was too sloppy, but she had a charming charm. Desire is a rebellion against reason.
This dialectic is abundant in most of Rohmer's movies.
Just like the heroine in "Full Moon in the Flower City", she can't experience her love for each other in the love of her boyfriend. She is afraid of the loss of love, so she chooses to be debauched. Only in the debauchery of that night can she feel her boyfriend's desire for loyalty.
It is precisely because of this kind of rebellion that Rohmer's movies are always dumbfounding. The tragedy is that this is a painful dilemma that exists in the depths of our human nature. The comedy lies in its incomprehension, because the temptation comes from the tension between desires, and once a choice is made, the tension It will be resolved accordingly. Just like the loyal and licentious sisters, they either live together or die together. To borrow Eason Chan's lyrics, "The unavailable will always be in a commotion, and the favored will always have no fear".
Rohmer has a personal experience of this dilemma that is so commonplace, frivolous, deeply rooted, and solemn. Researchers believe that "Summer's Story", which is closest to Rohmer's personal experience, has made a very vivid description of this choice disorder. The protagonist realizes that choice is the end of pain and the end of happiness, so he chooses to escape. Only in this way can he illusively possess both at the same time from a certain safe distance.
Has nothing to do with the fashion of this era
If you follow this line of thinking, Rohmer will eventually move towards the sharpness of nihilism, but Rohmer is a devout Catholic, and the final answer is still faith.
In Rohmer's view, faith is an adventure, a gambling, a desperate survival, and a search for possibility in the impossible. Despair is the basic condition of faith, and hope in despair is the true meaning of faith.
Therefore, in "Green Light" and "Winter's Tale", the inexplicable enthusiasm finally saved the two protagonists. Of course, in "A Night at Mude's House" and "Marquise O", you can also see a more secular way of redemption. The former male protagonist finally realizes that angels actually have a devilish side, but his choice is not to expose. The heroine of the latter finds that the angel is the devil, and the two go hand in hand. The heroine’s choice is to accept both at the same time, or to deny both at the same time.
Only by admitting and accepting imperfections is happiness possible.
Rohmer spent his entire life in this emotional and ethical game, passing perfectly with the magnificent times of the 20th century. Because of this, he is very lucky to have nothing to do with the fashion of this era (their other name is naive).
The obsessive entanglement of men and women with excess emotions, and the perverted self-reflection, give his films a kind of honesty and meanness.
In the form of the film, he saw that gorgeousness is the dissolution of delicateness, and simplicity can have room for subtle development. On the subject, he saw that choice is a kind of cocoon and self-restraint. Faith is a reckless adventure, and acceptance is the way out of most people's moral dilemmas.
He became the author by firmly hiding the author's logo in the video, and he used the ridiculous dense lines to give this kind of authorship a stylized label like no other. He is the guardian of classical beauty. He is a perfect example of a film writer. He needs the patience to be ambitious but not eager for quick success, and he needs to be aware of the form of the film but is always alert to his humility of grandstanding. He has the power to keep himself out of the trend, and at the same time keeps the innocent enthusiasm of playing with toys like a child.
China News Weekly, Issue 28, 2020
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