89 year old French filmmaker Eric Rohmer has died according to the BBC.
Rohmer was an elder and key figure in the French New Wave cinema movement, but was less celebrated internationally than the Jean-Luc Godards and François Truffauts of the world, perhaps because his work was much quieter and reserved. Not to mention, he was a decade older than the youthful up-and-comers that defined that movement (and in many ways like Louise Malle, another older Frenchman, was lumped into the group by proxy, more so than any stylistic relations). Though Truffaut once said that their older colleague “was our master.”
Rohmer was also much more private and discreet than his contemporaries, perhaps best evinced in the fact that he used a pseudonym most of his life (the filmmaker was born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer in 1920; the nom de plume change was putatively in homage to the great Austrian director Eric Von Stroheim).
Like most French New Wave directors, Rohmer worked as an editor at French film journal Cahiers du cinéma before making the jump from criticism to feature filmmaking.
Best known for his “film cycles,” Rohmer’s best works are arguably his 1960s’ “Six Moral Tales” series (released by Criterion in 2006 and spans six films) and another sextet, the “Comedies and Proverbs” series released in the 1980s which featured one of his most notable (and acclaimed) films, “Pauline At The Beach” (which is one of our favorites and it featured a lot of wonderful, natural and painterly light by the great cinematographer Nestor Almendros who worked with Rohmer often). In the 199os he did his third series, “Tales of the Four Seasons” (which comprised four films each about a season, Winter, Spring, Summer & Autumn).
Rohmer once mentioned that his stylized films attempting to portray the inner lives of his characters were misunderstood as too talky and non-plot driven, and legendary New Yorker critic Pauline Kael directed her wrath towards him for what she deemed as taking trivial matters to the extreme. His painstaking preparations for his films insured a quick shoot, and he often worked with a skeleton crew and the same actors, cinematographers and editors, who understood his process and quirks.
The BBC does not cite the cause of his death, but at 89, old age is certainly likely part of the cause. Rohmer’s work is obviously well-known and celebrated in film-snob circles, but the rest of the world isn’t exactly fluent in his work. Perhaps his death might change that and we suggest you start with the really underrated (and very funny) “Comedies & Proverbs” series.
Rohmer’s “Romance of Astree and Celadon” was his last film made in 2007. “My Night at Maud’s” (the 4th film that arrived in the “Six Moral Tales” though it was set to be third) earned the director an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign-Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards for the year 1969.