Two tired cliches are that sex destroys friendships and that men and
women can never really be friends and no-one chronicled these two
sayings better than Eric Rohmer who made it his life's work to explore
the psychological battles that we call courtship. In doing so he became,
perhaps, the cinema's greatest director of women. Let's forget for a
moment that he divided his films into series, (Six Moral Tales, for
example, of which "La Collectionneuse" is one), and concentrate on the
film at hand.
"La Collectionneuse" is very simple and very
straightforward. Two male friends spend a summer sharing a villa in the
south of France. There is another occupant, a slightly younger woman who
sleeps around and it is she the men christen the collector since she
'collects' men wherever she goes. They, of course, consider themselves
moral but they are also intellectuals and perhaps womanisers, too. They
want to collect the girl; they want the girl to collect them.
Like
all of Rohmer's best work this is a film of talk rather than action.
Rohmer doesn't film love scenes or sex scenes; once his male and female
characters enter the bedroom he loses interest. It's the chase and not
the catch he cares about and whether men and women really can be friends
as well as lovers. He takes his subjects seriously but he also likes to
have fun at their expense and like so many of his films "La
Collectionneuse" will have you chuckling if not exactly laughing
out loud.
In his later films it was usually the women who took
the lead but here it is Adrien, (a superb Patrick Bauchau), who acts as
our narrator, guiding us through the moral maze but then all three
players are excellent. This may be a minor Rohmer film but minor only in
the way a short story is considered minor when compared to a novel.
Personally I think "La Collectionneuse" is a Rohmer crying out for
your collection
The films reviewed here represent those I have liked or loved over the years. It is not a list of my favourite films but all the films reviewed here are worth seeing and worth seeking out. I know many of you won't agree with me on a lot of these but hopefully you will grant me, and the films that appear here, our place in the sun. Thanks for reading.
Friday, 31 May 2019
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