Eric Rohmer Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Director , Screenwriter , Actor more
Birth name Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer
Nationality French
Birth April 4, 1920 (Tulle, Corrèze – France)
Death January 11, 2010
BIOGRAPHY
Our interview with Rohmer – The filmmaker comments on his film

A young literature professor in Vierzon, Jean-Marie Maurice Schéré published a novel in 1946, Elisabeth , under the pseudonym Gilbert Cordier. Director in 1950 of La Gazette du cinéma and host at the Ciné-Club du Quartier Latin, he then met Godard , Rivette , Truffaut , and even Chabrol – with whom he signed a book on Alfred Hitchcock in 1955 . This group of future directors quickly joined Cahiers du cinéma, of which Rohmer was editor-in-chief from 1957 to 1963. The eldest of the group, he was the first to move into directing, in 1950, with the short film Journal d ‘a scoundrel .

But it was only in 1959 that he made his first feature The Sign of the Lion , released without success three years later. In 1962, he created the company Les Films du Losange with Barbet Schroeder , which produced the majority of his films. The same year, he began a cycle called Moral Tales . We find in these sentimental intrigues the themes dear to the filmmaker (the temptation of infidelity, destiny) as well as the style that will make his mark, between lightness and sophistication, literary dialogues and refined staging. My night at Maud’s (1969), and Claire’s Knee (1970, Louis-Delluc Prize) are particularly noted. French “author” par excellence, he writes the scripts for his films alone, even if he sometimes tries his hand at literary adaptation ( La Marquise d’O in 1976, or Perceval le Gallois in 1978).

The Moral Tales were followed by another collection, the Comedies and Proverbs , which covered the 1980s. Among the works of this series we can cite Pauline at the Beach (1982) or Le Rayon vert (1986), a largely improvised film which received the Golden Lion in Venice (Rohmer will receive this same distinction for his entire career in 2001). The following decade was marked by Tales of the Four Seasons , in which the filmmaker continued his exploration of the games of love and chance. At the same time, he regularly takes interludes, filming “special series”, such as 4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle or The Tree, the Mayor and the Media Library , two fables which prove that Rohmer is as much a country rat as a rat cities.

By constructing a coherent and demanding body of work, Rohmer quickly attracted the favor of international critics, and built up a loyal and fervent audience over the years. Although he often chooses young, unknown actors, he sometimes calls on established actors, such as Jean-Louis Trintignant ( Ma nuit chez Maud ), André Dussollier ( Le Beau Mariage ), or Melvil Poupaud ( Conte d’été ). . And it was in his films that Arielle Dombasle , Pascal Greggory and Fabrice Luchini , the filmmaker’s favorite actors who became established figures in French cinema, were revealed . Discreet, even secretive, this erudite man wrote a musicological essay on Mozart and Beethoven, and directed plays. At over 80 years old, he continues his unique journey by directing three period films in quick succession: The Englishwoman and the Duke (2001), which takes place during the French Revolution, the spy film Triple Agent (2004) , and Les Amours d’Astrée et de Céladon , adaptation of the pastoral novel by Honoré d’Urfé .