25
Sep/16

ERIC ROHMER’S SIX MORAL TALES: LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON

25
Sep/16
LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON

Chloé (Zouzou) and Frédéric Carrelet (Bernard Verley) develop a unique relationship in Eric Rohmer’s LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON

SIX MORAL TALES: L’AMOUR L’APRÈS-MIDI (LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON) (CHLOÉ IN THE AFTERNOON) (Eric Rohmer, 1972)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
144 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Nightly through September 29, 6:45 & 8:45
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.org

The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales” concludes with the last work in the series, the 1972 drama Love in the Afternoon, which serves not only as the chronological end but the thematic finale as well. Bernard Verley stars as Frédéric Carrelet, a nearly perfect 1970s French bourgeois character. In his mid-thirties, a partner in a two-lawyer firm, he is about to have his second child with his wife, Hélène, played by his real spouse at the time, Françoise Verley, in her only feature film. While Frédéric seems at ease with his steady suburban life, he daydreams about other women, albeit with no intention of taking action. At lunch he goes to a café, watches all the passersby outside, and thinks (in voice-over narration), “If there’s one thing I’m incapable of now, it’s trying to seduce a girl. I have no idea what to say.” However, he adds, “The prospect of quiet happiness stretching indefinitely before me depresses me.” But he also admits about women, “I feel their seductive power without giving in to it.” But when an old friend from his past, the sexy and freewheeling Chloé (Zouzou), unexpectedly arrives in his office one day and starts an unpredictable yet exciting flirtation with him, Frédéric is forced to look deep inside himself and make some choices about his life that are harder than he anticipated.

chloe-in-the-afternoon

Love in the Afternoon — which should not be confused with Billy Wilder’s 1957 romantic comedy of the same name, starring Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant, but was remade in 2007 by Chris Rock and Louis C.K. as I Think I Love My Wife — is a delightful will-he-or-won’t-he drama in which the man, Frédéric, thinks he has all the power but in fact it rests in the hands of all the women he meets, from a sexy store employee (Irène Skobline) who upsells him a cashmere button-down shirt instead of yet another drab, confining turtleneck to the two secretaries in his office, Fabienne (Malvina Penne) and Martine (Babette Ferrier), who suspect something untoward is going on, to Hélène and Chloé. Made during the women’s liberation movement, the film shows Frédéric at the mercy of all the women in his life, including those he meets on the street. At one point he imagines having a magical device that makes him irresistible to them, using it to conquer a succession of six women played by actresses from three of Rohmer’s previous Moral Tales, each described by Frédéric with one adjective: indifferent (Françoise Fabian from My Night at Maud’s), hurried (Béatrice Romand from Claire’s Knee), hesitant (Marie-Christine Barrault, My Night at Maud’s), busy (La Collectionneuse’s Haydée Politoff), accompanied (Laurence de Monaghan, Claire’s Knee), and alone (Aurora Cornu, Claire’s Knee). Frédéric is a kind of everyman, facing sin and temptation everywhere; he even accidentally catches their lovely English nanny (Suze Randall) in the buff. So he is in a constant struggle with his moral code, and that of society, while wondering if it is possible to truly love and be in love with two women at the same time. Written and directed by Rohmer, who casts no judgments on any of his characters, and photographed with a sly sense of humor by Néstor Almendros, Love in the Afternoon is a fitting end to Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales, bringing everything full circle with an absolutely grand finale. (The film is being shown twice a night through September 29 at the Walter Reade Theater, at 6:45 and 8:45, in a new 35mm restoration.)