Marubi Film Academy, remembers ɲic Rohmer

Marubi Film Academy screened “Chloe in the afternoon” by recently deceased movie director ɲic Rohmer. L’amour l’apres midi a.k.a Chloe/ Love in the afternoon is the last of Rohmer’s six moral tales. Frederic leads a bourgeois life; he is a partner in a small Paris office and is happily married to Helene, a teacher expecting her second child. In the afternoons, Frederic daydreams about other women, but has no intention of taking any action. One day, Chloe, who had been a mistress of an old friend, begins dropping by his office. They meet as friends, irregularly in the afternoons, till eventually Chloe decides to seduce Frederic, causing him a moral dilemma.
Rohmer’s films invariably concentrate on intelligent, articulate protagonists, who nevertheless frequently fail to own up to their real desires. The contrast between what they say and what they do fuels much of the drama in his films. Whilst few of Rohmer’s films have been great commercial successes, his unique brand of cinema has found a loyal following and many of his films have garnered critical acclaim, in his native France and abroad. These films are invariably about close human relationships, most often between young people experiencing the first traumas of romantic love, and generally involve a moral dilemma of some kind. Thanks in part to his use of non-professional and inexperienced actors and improvised dialogue, Rohmer’s films have a natural spontaneity and beguiling innocence which make them enthralling and authentic explorations of the human psyche.
ʲic Rohmer, born April 4th 1920, was a film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher. A key figure in the post-war New Wave cinema, he was a former editor of the influential French film journal ‘Cahiers du cinꮡ’. Rohmer was the last of the French New Wave directors to become established. He worked as the editor of the ‘Cahiers du cinꮡ’ periodical from 1957 to 1963, while most of his Cahiers colleagues, among them Jean-Luc Godard and Fran谩s Truffaut, were beginning their careers and gaining international attention. Rohmer came to international attention around 1969 when one of his films was recognized at the Academy Awards. He won the San Sebasti⮠International Film Festival with Claire’s Knee in 1970. In 2001, Rohmer received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. His works were viewed by audiences around the world.
ɲic Rohmer passed away on January 11th 2010 at the age of 89. In his obituary in The Daily Telegraph he was described as, “ƴhe most durable film-maker of the French New Wave”, outlasting his peers and “Ƴtill making movies the public wanted to see” late in his career.