The Green Ray (PG.)
Directed by Eric Rohmer. 1986.
Starring Marie Riviere, Beatrice Romand, Vincent Gauthier and Rosette. French with subtitles. 98 mins. Opening on January 2nd. Part of a Rohmer season at the BFI.
Parisians and their entitlements are/were the envy of Europe, although none of them seem to get much pleasure from them. In The Green Ray we are shown a world where everybody is trying to cope with the burden of having to take a four week holiday at the end of summer; everybody has at least one spare apartment, the key to which are happily offered up to any passing acquaintance yet most people have jobs no more rarefied than secretary. Delphine (Riviere) is such a secretary whose holiday plans are scuppered at the last moment and then has to desperately try to make alternative plans. She goes to someone else's family home in Cherborg, gets bored and returns to Paris, goes to the Alps for an afternoon before ending up in overcast Biaritz. Delphine though doesn't fit in anywhere, is desperately lonely and prone to crying jags.
Green Ray is the fifth of Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs. To be honest the laughs are sparse and there isn't much of a lesson to it but it has a charm and attraction that probably no other film maker could pull off. Granted mopey Delphine and her permanently dissatisfaction isn't always an easy character to root for but Rohmer's vision of Europeans at leisure means you can see her point.
Rohmer's direction is so gentle enough to make Ken Loach or Mike Leigh look like Ridley Scott. The film was almost entirely improvised and shot quickly with a small crew. The cast were often just people they came across. It's an approach that makes the film seem incredibly casual and lifelike, and gives a necessary balance to Delphine's self pity. In a more filmy film she would be unbearable as a lead character; here the relationship with her is more nonchalant, like she's been latched onto by some unfortunate documentary film crew. There is enough of the unfeeling world to give her poignancy.
The downside of this approach is that the film looks horrible. It is shot of 16mm, blown up to 35mm and looks TV cheap and nasty especially to anyone whose knowledge of Rohmer is limited to My Night With Maud which had Nestor Almendros' beautiful black and white images.
Directed by Eric Rohmer. 1986.
Starring Marie Riviere, Beatrice Romand, Vincent Gauthier and Rosette. French with subtitles. 98 mins. Opening on January 2nd. Part of a Rohmer season at the BFI.
Parisians and their entitlements are/were the envy of Europe, although none of them seem to get much pleasure from them. In The Green Ray we are shown a world where everybody is trying to cope with the burden of having to take a four week holiday at the end of summer; everybody has at least one spare apartment, the key to which are happily offered up to any passing acquaintance yet most people have jobs no more rarefied than secretary. Delphine (Riviere) is such a secretary whose holiday plans are scuppered at the last moment and then has to desperately try to make alternative plans. She goes to someone else's family home in Cherborg, gets bored and returns to Paris, goes to the Alps for an afternoon before ending up in overcast Biaritz. Delphine though doesn't fit in anywhere, is desperately lonely and prone to crying jags.
Green Ray is the fifth of Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs. To be honest the laughs are sparse and there isn't much of a lesson to it but it has a charm and attraction that probably no other film maker could pull off. Granted mopey Delphine and her permanently dissatisfaction isn't always an easy character to root for but Rohmer's vision of Europeans at leisure means you can see her point.
Rohmer's direction is so gentle enough to make Ken Loach or Mike Leigh look like Ridley Scott. The film was almost entirely improvised and shot quickly with a small crew. The cast were often just people they came across. It's an approach that makes the film seem incredibly casual and lifelike, and gives a necessary balance to Delphine's self pity. In a more filmy film she would be unbearable as a lead character; here the relationship with her is more nonchalant, like she's been latched onto by some unfortunate documentary film crew. There is enough of the unfeeling world to give her poignancy.
The downside of this approach is that the film looks horrible. It is shot of 16mm, blown up to 35mm and looks TV cheap and nasty especially to anyone whose knowledge of Rohmer is limited to My Night With Maud which had Nestor Almendros' beautiful black and white images.
