Film Review | Eric Rohmer DVD box set

Eric Rohmer

Six Moral Tales
RRP £39.99


Eric Rohmer, a leading figure of the New Wave film movement and one of the Editors of the groundbreaking film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, sadly passed away earlier this year. But thanks to this splendid new 5-DVD box-set featuring some of his best loved works, the genius storyteller’s work lives on.

From the charming 1962 study of fledgling adolescent desire The Girl at The Monceau Bakery (starring a youthful Barbet Schroeder, pictured, who would go on to be a director of some repute himself) to the last of his “moral tales”, Love in the Afternoon” – about a married man struggling to resist the charms of a post-lunch temptress – the collection is a perfect distillation of his early style. Each story centres on what happens when a man meets a woman when he is about to commit himself to another woman.

The economy of visual style and sense of a gently unfolding moral quandary in each tale is a joy to behold. And what’s more, also included is perhaps his most famous early work – Claire’s Knee – about a man’s obsession with a younger woman on a lakeside holiday.

All in all, whether you’re a committed lover of le ciné français or just a film fan, this fine collection by one of the masters of world cinema is a must-have.