Eric Rohmer

Eric Rohmer (1920- ), French film director, who from the late 1960s became renowned for his articulate and intelligent films, which involved some of the finest characterizations of women, their concerns, and dreams in the contemporary cinema. Born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer on April 4, 1920, in Nancy, Eric Rohmer was one of the founders of the French nouvelle vague (New Wave), and was for six years the editor of the influential and radical film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma.

When Eric Rohmer began to direct his own feature films he developed a deceptively simple style. Announced as a cycle of “Moral Tales”, Rohmer’s films dealt with men and women whose attempts to analyse their own behaviour are often at odds with their actions. Rohmer was concerned not with traditional plots and dramas but with the small and intimate details of relationships and the psychology of his characters. La Collectionneuse (1967; The Collector), Ma Nuit Chez Maud (1969; My Night With Maud), Le Genou de Claire (1970; Claire’s Knee), and L’Amour l’Après-Midi (1972; Love in the Afternoon) all deal with these themes. In 1981 Eric Rohmer embarked, with La Femme de l’Aviateur (The Aviator’s Wife), on a new cycle of films he called “Comedies and Proverbs”, and, in 1990, with Conte de Printemps (A Tale of Springtime), he announced yet another cycle, “Tales of Four Seasons”, which went on to include Conte d’Hiver (1992; A Winter’s Tale), Conte d’Été (1996; A Summer’s Tale), and Conte d'Automne (1998; An Autumn Tale).

Rohmer’s 1995 film Les Rendezvous de Paris, comprising three short pieces shot on 16-mm film, highlighted his enduring capacity to maintain the low-budget simplicity and directness of his earliest films, while L'Anglaise et le Duc (2001; The Lady and the Duke), which used digital effects to recreate Revolutionary Paris to remarkable effect, showed him to be equally at home with new technology. He continued to work into his 80s, with the 1930s-set espionage drama Triple Agent (2004) and Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon (2007), adapted from the 17th-century pastoral romance by Honoré d'Urfé.