Jacques Rivette
- Filmmaker
- Critic
Collaborated with · 1950
Rivette wrote for Rohmer's La Gazette du cinéma in 1950 and worked alongside him at Cahiers du cinéma, where he succeeded Rohmer as editor-in-chief in 1963.
- Filmmaker
- Critic
Éric Rohmer
Critic and editor of Cahiers du cinéma who became the New Wave's most literary director. His Six Moral Tales — My Night at Maud's, Claire's Knee — built a body of talkative, closely observed films about desire and hesitation.
In images
Details
- 1920–2010
- 21 March 1920
- Tulle, France
- 11 January 2010
- Paris, France
- French
- FilmmakerCritic
About Éric Rohmer
Éric Rohmer was the oldest of the Cahiers du cinéma critics who became the French New Wave, and the last of them to establish himself as a director. Born Maurice Schérer in 1920, he took a pseudonym partly to keep his film career from his family, edited Cahiers from 1957 to 1963, and did not have a real success until My Night at Maud's in 1969, when he was nearly fifty.
His films are built from conversation. The Six Moral Tales, and the later cycles Comedies and Proverbs and Tales of the Four Seasons, follow ordinary people talking their way through desire, doubt, and self-deception, shot with small crews and natural light. He kept working into his eighties and died in Paris in 2010.
The critic behind a pseudonym
Rohmer came to film through writing. Born Maurice Schérer in Tulle in 1920, he taught literature and published a novel before turning to criticism, taking the name Éric Rohmer in part to hide the work from his mother. In 1950 he founded the short-lived journal La Gazette du cinéma, where the young Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette also wrote, and he soon joined André Bazin's Cahiers du cinéma.
From 1957 to 1963 Rohmer was editor-in-chief of Cahiers, the post at the center of the circle that argued for the director as an author. In 1957 he and Claude Chabrol published a book-length study of Alfred Hitchcock, one of the first to take the director seriously as an artist. He lost the editorship in 1963, in a dispute over the magazine's politics, to Jacques Rivette.
The Six Moral Tales
Rohmer's feature debut, The Sign of Leo (shot 1959, released 1962), went almost unseen. His breakthrough came with a series he called the Six Moral Tales, each turning on a man who is drawn to one woman while committed to another, and who talks himself through the temptation. My Night at Maud's (1969) brought him two Academy Award nominations; Claire's Knee (1970) won prizes across Europe; L'Amour l'après-midi completed the cycle in 1972.
The films look plain and are exact. Rohmer worked with small crews, available light, and long conversations, filming in real apartments and on real streets and in the real seasons. The drama is almost entirely verbal — what people say they want, and what they do instead.
Later cycles
He won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1976 for The Marquise of O, a period adaptation of Kleist, and the Golden Lion at Venice in 1986 for The Green Ray, an almost improvised film about a lonely young woman's summer. These belonged to a second cycle, Comedies and Proverbs, followed in the 1990s by a third, Tales of the Four Seasons. He kept the same method across four decades and rarely spent much money.
Standing in the New Wave
Among the Cahiers directors Rohmer was the least flashy and the most consistent. Where Godard broke the rules of editing and Truffaut chased feeling, Rohmer kept the camera still and let people talk, and built one of the most unified bodies of work in French cinema. He was also the oldest of the group and the slowest to arrive, which is why he is sometimes treated as a figure apart, even though his roots in Cahiers were as deep as anyone's.
Life events
Born Maurice Schérer on 21 March in Tulle, in central France.
Founds the journal La Gazette du cinéma, where Godard and Rivette also write.
Becomes editor-in-chief of Cahiers du cinéma; publishes a study of Hitchcock with Claude Chabrol.
The Sign of Leo, his little-seen feature debut, is released.
Loses the Cahiers editorship to Jacques Rivette after a dispute over the magazine's direction.
My Night at Maud's earns two Academy Award nominations and makes his name at nearly fifty.
Claire's Knee, the fifth of the Six Moral Tales.
L'Amour l'après-midi completes the Six Moral Tales.
Wins the Grand Prix at Cannes for The Marquise of O.
The Green Ray wins the Golden Lion at Venice.
Dies in Paris on 11 January, at eighty-nine.
People they knew
Jean-Luc Godard
- Filmmaker
- Critic
Collaborated with · 1950
Godard wrote for Rohmer's short-lived journal La Gazette du cinéma in 1950 and acted in Rohmer's early short Présentation, ou Charlotte et son steak. Both were part of the Cahiers du cinéma circle.
Movements
Film movement · c. 1958–1968
The French New Wave
One of the Cahiers du cinéma critics who became the New Wave. Rohmer edited the magazine from 1957 to 1963 and was the oldest of the group and the last to establish himself as a director, reaching his first success with My Night at Maud's in 1969.
Questions about Éric Rohmer
Who was Éric Rohmer?
A French film director and critic, born Maurice Schérer in 1920. He edited Cahiers du cinéma from 1957 to 1963 and became the most literary of the New Wave directors, known for talkative films about desire and hesitation, above all the Six Moral Tales. He died in 2010.
What are the Six Moral Tales?
A cycle of six films Rohmer made between 1963 and 1972, each about a man drawn to one woman while attached to another, who reasons his way through the temptation. The best known are My Night at Maud's (1969), Claire's Knee (1970), and L'Amour l'après-midi (1972).
Was Éric Rohmer part of the French New Wave?
Yes. He was one of the Cahiers du cinéma critics — with Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, and Rivette — who turned from writing to directing and made the New Wave. He was the oldest of the group and the last to establish himself, reaching his first success only in 1969.
What is Éric Rohmer's most famous film?
My Night at Maud's (1969), a black-and-white film of a long night of conversation about faith and love, which earned two Academy Award nominations. Claire's Knee (1970) and the later Green Ray (1986), winner of the Golden Lion at Venice, are also among his best known.
Why did Maurice Schérer use the name Éric Rohmer?
He adopted the pseudonym in part to keep his involvement in cinema from his family, especially his mother, and he guarded his privacy throughout his life. The name is often said to combine the actor-director Erich von Stroheim and the novelist Sax Rohmer.
How is Rohmer's style different from the other New Wave directors?
It is the quietest. Where Godard broke editing rules and Truffaut chased strong emotion, Rohmer kept the camera still, used natural light and small crews, and built his drama almost entirely from conversation, filming in real places across real seasons.
Sourced claims
Associated with · 1959
The French New Wave
One of the Cahiers du cinéma critics who became the New Wave. Rohmer edited the magazine from 1957 to 1963 and was the oldest of the group and the last to establish himself as a director, reaching his first success with My Night at Maud's in 1969.
Collaborated with · 1950
Jacques Rivette
Rivette wrote for Rohmer's La Gazette du cinéma in 1950 and worked alongside him at Cahiers du cinéma, where he succeeded Rohmer as editor-in-chief in 1963.
Collaborated with · 1950
Jean-Luc Godard
Godard wrote for Rohmer's short-lived journal La Gazette du cinéma in 1950 and acted in Rohmer's early short Présentation, ou Charlotte et son steak. Both were part of the Cahiers du cinéma circle.