Eric Rohmer's women

Eric Rohmer: films about stupid people talking about their equally stupid ideas for life. The ideas are usually haphazard mixtures of well sounding slogans and ad hoc improvisation. The longer the speeches (and they are usually longer than ones ever actually given in life), the more obvious it becomes how bad the ideas are, how they do not hold together, and how mixed up and confused are the heads from which they emerge.

These films are true to life: I have known people like that; conversations with them grew more disorienting and depressing until one finally arrived at the sensation of drowning in a rapidly rising high tide of nonsense. In the end, one ran: changed the phone number, pretended not to be at home, or not to recognize them when bumping into them in the street.

All four Rohmer’s films which I have so far seen have followed this pattern. I suppose I don’t mind seeing a movie like this every now and then – it’s only two hours of my life spent in confirming what I already know – that people are by and large dumb – it is good to remind oneself of it, spending most of my time in my own company I tend to forget this indispensable truth; but it is curious to me that Rohmer does not mind spending countless hours with these people – writing the scripts about them, then conjuring them on the set; and, once he is done, starting all over again. Why?

Only one explanation comes to mind: the stupid women – his films are mostly about women – must be his girlfriends; and each film – a kind of tombstone for a relationship. One can’t help wishing, for the sake of Eric Rohmer as well as his cinema, that he had aimed a little higher in his conquests.

And another thought on this:

Perhaps one reason why I have not been in contact with the Eric Rohmer kind of stupidity for some time now is that it is less in evidence in Asia. And not because people are less stupid here – though perhaps they have been stupefied less by the great confusion of conflicting ideologies which convulse the West – but because people do not have the habit of expressing themselves freely here. This may be because they have less confidence in what they take to be their ideas; or because it is considered rude to speak of important, personal topics. But whatever the reason, the net effect is the usual benefit of silence: silence is usually mistaken for depth. (“Be beautiful and say nothing” one tells the girls, knowing that this will increase their appeal: silent women appear mysterious).