Le Beau Mariage

1982, Eric Rohmer
Rohmer switches the game up a bit here, focussing on a young woman. It’s worth noting that the camera is become a little more fixed, a little more focussed on master shots. And we notice a propensity for clothes-lining the framing, sitting on beds. This film is perhaps the most straightforward ‘awkward’ to watch, through the fingers, though one isn’t being manipulated.
Like many of Rohmer’s films, this takes a while to get going, but when it does we have an exquisitely observed, often funny, deeply revealing piece. This is one of the proverbs series, not to build castles in the sky, which is exactly what of course happens. This is soon clear to the audience, who watch the scenes unfold with irony.
Rohmer achieves a state whereby there is no maliciousness, because the viewer is not held as superior to the action; thus could be us. It is pedagogic, we learn and try to know better, but the characters often develop beyond what we thought the lesson was, beyond us, and the audience finds what they thought a minute earlier being challenged. Thus, for all the superiority, the viewer is learning with, and occasionally behind, those who appear for our benefit.