L’Amour l’Apres-Midi

Eric Rohmer, the sixth of his moral tales, 1972
Rohmer here uses the voiceover, and the study of the male protagonist. It is quite literary, and is very much narrative based. It flies along with its story using Rohmer’s usual fade-ins and outs. The dream sequence is charming; a real entry into a character’s monologue.
The camera generally alights on lone figures, framing them off centre is there is something else to investigate. Rohmer also is happy to shoot one scene from different angles, either taking us by surprise or letting us adopt a new view. This comes together in that, by separating characters so often, when they come together there is real tension.
The script and narrative here are wonderful, with great dramatic irony within the tale. It is genuinely intelligent; the characters have depth, change, and one is able to encounter them as real people. Small actions, small manipulations, become important, as the bourgeois faced crumbles. Little seemingly superfluous parts, a phone call ended, a little manipulation, sketch a world in detail far beyond the dreams of most fillmakers.
This is a film that in its content genuinely asks the audience to consider and think. It is a fable, but there is no pedagogy here; just an intelligent, layered, exploration (which of course needs some evaluation) of a situation. And well-filmed too; Rohmer takes care over his shots. A fine work.