Eric Rohmer (1920-2010)

It wouldn't be exaggerating to say that Eric Rohmer, who died this week, was one of my cinematic heroes. He was up there with Kurosawa, Kieslowski, Truffaut, Reitz and Herzog as one of the great story tellers of cinema. He was also something of a renaissance man, having been a screenwriter, journalist, critic, novelist and teacher, in addition to which of course he was an inspiration to many of the directors who would emerge in the late 1950's, early 1960's as part of the French 'New Wave' of cinema.

It's difficult to categorise his body of work beyond saying that it was part allegory, part whimsy but always intelligent. There was no use of CGI, Rohmer even eschewed the use of music in most of his films, but the settings and the cinematography were always accompanied by first rate acting and a story that treated its audience as adult enough not to need flashy plot devices.

Some of Rohmers films (particularly A Summers Tale, Claire's Knee and Pauline at the Beach) featured actors in their twenties and I have to say that due to my British sexual repression I felt uneasy watching them the first time, in the same way I was uncomfortable photographing teenage actors last February. That however was my fault not his and films reward repeated viewings, not least because the conversations that often develop between his characters are the cinematic equivalent of an Elmore Leonard novel, that is to say the dialogue is natural, not stilted or false. People talk about the things real people talk about.

A Summers Tale is probably my favourite, although Pauline at The Beach comes a close second, not least because it makes full use of the northern Brittany coast around Dinard and St.Malo, because it tells a story that we can all relate to, a teenage boy (Gaspard) on holiday and his relationship with the three women who enter his life during his three weeks on the coast.

Rohmer won numerous awards during his lifetime and was twice nominated for the Oscars, bizarrely for the same film in two different years! Awards aside he leaves a body of work of around thirty films, some grouped such as the six films that made the series 'Six Morality Tales', or the six films that made up the collection 'Comedy's and Proverbs' and of course the excellent 'Four Seasons.' Fortunately through the wonders of DVD his legacy lives on and generations of film buffs will be able to enjoy one of the great masters of European cinema and storytelling.