Eric Rohmer

Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer (his real name) was born on April 4, 1920, in Nancy. He studied French literature in college, and later taught at the Lycée de Nancy, where he had been a student. In the 1940s he published “Elizabeth”, his only novel, and various newspaper articles.

When he moved to Paris, determined to become a filmmaker, he became a regular at the French Cinematheque. In 1957 he adopted the nickname Eric Rohmer, as a tribute to two of his great idols, the director Erich von Stroheim and the novelist Sax Rohmer , the creator of Fu Manchu. Under this pseudonym he co-wrote with Claude Chabrol the book “Hitchcock”, about the Magician of Suspense. Apparently he had chosen to hide his real name to dedicate himself to the cinema, so that his parents would not find out that he was no longer a literature teacher. Until he was 50 years old, he hid his job as director from them.

Becoming editor-in-chief of the prestigious magazine “Cahiers du cinema” -of which he was one of the founders-, he helped vindicate the figure of filmmakers such as Howard Hawks and the aforementioned  Alfred Hitchcock . He debuted as a filmmaker with Le signe du lion , although his first big success was The Collector , which won two awards in Berlin (best film for young audiences and Special Jury Prize).

Rohmer often repeated with the same team, although he especially liked working with actress Marie Rivière and cinematographers Néstor Almendros and Diane Baratier . Among his films, the period film The Marquise of O stands out , and his series, since he was a filmmaker quite given to grouping his works.

The films The Baker of Monceau , Suzanne’s Career , the brilliant  My Night with Maud (nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and considered one of his most solid works), the formerly mentioned The Collector , Clara’s knee and Love after noon .

In the 80s he shot the “Comedies and proverbs”. It includes the films The Aviator’s Woman , The Good Wedding , Pauline on the Beach , The Full Moon Nights , The Green Ray (with which he won the Golden Lion and the International Critics Award in Venice) and My Friend friend .

His last series was the excellent “Tales of the Four Seasons”, filmed in the 1990s. It includes four films, one for each season: A Spring ‘s Tale, A Winter’s Tale , a Summer’s Tale and an Autumn’s Tale .

Author of an apparently very simple cinema, Rohmer’s specialty is his dialogues, so natural that they do not seem to be part of a work of fiction, and where the themes and conflicts that are dealt with in each film arise absolutely spontaneously. Rohmer is the filmmaker of the moral problems suffered by characters tormented by their conscience, who try to behave rationally, but who are victims of their own desires. However, his cinema does not seem pedantic, much less moralizing. “I don’t say, I show”, the director used to repeat.

He continued to be active even at an advanced age, creating extremely fresh films that other much younger authors would have wanted to make, with titles such as The Tree, the Mayor and the Media Library and  Las Rendez-vous de Paris , three stories about a couple that They developed in Paris. His desire for experimentation led him to shoot The Englishwoman and the Duke with pictorial sets, a technique that clearly anticipated the digital sets of titles such as Sin City and 300 . It was a somewhat cold but brave film, which caused some controversy in France, due to its criticism of the violence of the French Revolution.

After the irregular Triple Agent , a spy story, his last work was The Romance of Astrea and Celadon , from 2007, a bland film quite unworthy of his talent.