Word: rohmer
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...luxury of choosing his films and directors. Trintignant, 41, has emerged only in recent years as a superbly subtle technician of the screen. His taut, understated performances have included such diverse characterizations as the driven public prosecutor in Costa-Gavras' Z, the uptight Catholic in Rohmer's Ma Nuit Chez Maud and the intellectual fascist-killer in Bertolucci's The Conformist. Trintignant's acting style is condensed to a prodigious point of thrift in which complex characters are brought to life with extraordinary economy of gesture and expression. "The best actor in the world," he maintains...
Dreyer creates an original and visually satisfying style, but to serve what purpose? As in all his films, the moods that are developed are all-important. Beneath the mood-evoking surface dialogue and action, the real emotions play themselves out, giving the film a kinship with Rohmer's My Night at Maud's. The ideas that pervade Gertrud number among Dreyer's characteristic preoccupations. What is the power of love? What part should love play in a person's life? In contrast to his other films, Gertrud does not raise these questions in a religious context. A brief scene...
Over the past ten years, Raoul Coutard has achieved a reputation as one of the world's great cinematographers. In that time he has worked for almost all of the noted French "New Wave" film makers (Truffaut, Godard, Rohmer, among others). This is his first directorial effort, and it would seem that his technical background would incline him toward a stylistic self-consciousness. But Coutard is too sure of himself to feel a need to demonstrate his proficiencies. His direction is efficient rather than ostentatious. His concern is with narrative, and the narrative is rigourously simple...
...there is no depth to the film. Rohmer said prior to filming that "it will not be as serious as Maud, nor as pseudo-erotic as La Collectionneuse . . . it should be both sunny and reflective." It certainly is sunny, but the rate of human substance per cogitative dialogue is quite low. Our curiosity never turns to compassion. One critic has acclaimed the film as a comedy of manners in the French classical tradition. Indeed, the diplomat and the novelist do jostle the bourgeoisie and Claire's surly boyfriend somewhat, and Rohmer's society is a given to which the characters...
...Taking Off is an equally minor film and a greater failure. Like Claire's Knee for Rohmer, this is Milos Forman's fourth film, and a comedown from his previous work...