Take One (Sep-Oct 1972)

poor technical quality | must say. Around the same time | wanted to write about the cinema, so | started a little paper, that sold in film societies, with a few friends who were Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette and Francois Truffaut. That’s how we met. Then we wrote in a magazine that had a better presentation which was called Cahiers du Cinéma. And then we started to do terrorism — especially Francois Truffaut who destroyed the French cinema and prepared to start from scratch for us. Q: From scratch? Were there no directors prior to the New Wave who you particularly admired? ROHMER: Oh no. There were many. | don’t know with whom to start. Let’s say that | love Jean Renoir. : Q: Do you have any particular favorites among your own ilms? ROHMER: | do not have a favorite among the Moral Tales. | think that the Six Moral Tales are a whole to be considered in their entirety. The first two are not of a good technical quality, but | think that considered in the whole they have their raison d’étre. Q: Those first two films, La Boulangére de Monceau and La Carriére de Suzanne, were both in 16mm, and | heard that they were sold to French television. Is there any chance that we will get to see them here? ROHMER: Yes. Within a year. Q: Commercially? ROHMER: If you're willing to pay for them. They were done with technical means which, as | said, were somewhat insufficient, so they can only reach a very indulgent public. I’m afraid that they might disappoint you, but if you insist on seeing them, | cannot prevent you. Q: Your films have a definite literary quality to them, both in content and presentation. Books seem to play an important part in your work, not only overtly as with Pascal’s Pensées in Ma Nuit Chez Maude, but also subtly. For example, did you intend to parody Rousseau in Claire’s Knee? ROHMER: | thought of Rousseau in Claire’s Knee because Rousseau lived in Annecy and he told the story of the cherry tree. He once went with some young girls to pick cherries, and he went up in the tree and threw the cherries down on the young girls’ breasts. In Claire’s Knee it is the reverse. The man is standing at the foot of the tree and the girl is up in the tree showing her legs. But it was only after | had found the cherry tree next to the house where | was going to film that | got the idea for that scene. Q: And what about Bougainville’s travels in Chloé in the Afternoon? ROHMER: Ah. | said there was no mystery, nothing to guess in my films, but there may be something to guess. | was interested in two things. First of all, the book that Frédéric was reading was called Voyage Around the World and | find it comical to read that on a train between St. Clos and Paris. And also there is the content of the book, if you have read it. What Bougainville was surprised to find in Tahiti was polygamy, so the main character, Frédéric, in his reading is already interested in a society which is not the western, occidental society. And those are the very themes that Chloé will develop by polygamy. Q: The literary quality of your work is not limited to the references you make. The dialogue the characters speak is always very elaborate, very proper French. Do the actors improvise with their lines, or are they saying a text that is written word for word? ROHMER: | write my own films and the texts are written — 99 per cent of it — as you hear it on the screen. Certain things | haven't written, like “Hello,” and “How are you?” | do not like to write incorrect French. | think that the characters should speak correct French, but | do not think this is literary. | think it is spoken French. In Claire’s Knee you have a writer and a cultural attaché, and they speak very stern French. As for the part of the young girl, Laura, played by Beatrice Roman: a French critic told me that | made her say things that a girl her age wouldn't usually say, and | answered that what seems to be the dialogue of an older girl are actually sentences that 10 she said to me in front of a tape recorder and that | copied right off the tape. As to the character of Chloe: | invented this character and wrote her lines. But | knew Zouzou and | had had conversations with her in front of the tape recorder. | didn't use Zouzou’s own words though, for her vocabulary is very picturesque and | didn’t understand the French she spoke. For instance, she used the word flipper, which means “to flip out.” But there are many words which she did not like, and | did not ask her to use them. When an actor does not like a word, then | change it. But | am also very much against certain words which | myself do not like. For instance, | like the inversion of the interrogation, which | use myself. Sometimes | have a scene done over so as to have the actor respect this inversion. Q: Despite the rigors of the language though, your actors always seem very relaxed. Do you have any special techniques of direction to give your films this air of intimacy? ROHMER: I’m glad you find the actors relaxed because | do everything for them to be so. I’ve been asked this question often, so I’m trying to find a new answer, but it’s a very interesting question, so | must try to answer it. My theory is that one mustn't ask anything from the actors, and if one wants them to do something, one mustn’t ask them to do it. They must find it by themselves. For my actors | always use intelligent people, especially people who have an inventive mind. | make it so they like their characters, and in a way — even when they're professional actors doing an enactment — they get to like their character. Anyway, that’s my opinion, my personal feeling. Maybe if you asked them, they’d give you another answer. They might agree with Diderot — | don’t know if you’ve read this book in America — it’s called The Paradox of the Comedian. It’s obvious that they identify with the character and remain very conscious of the fact that they’re playing. But myself, | consider them more than actors. When we shoot, | would have a tendency to call Zouzou Chloé, and to believe that she really is Chloé. But I’m not sure that this pleased her very much, even though she was very close to the character. Also, since I’m filming changes in a person, | try to shoot in a chronological order. But unfortunately, this is not always possible for practical reasons. For example, in Chloé in the Afternoon, | had to shoot all the scenes with Zouzou and then all the scenes with the wife even though the scenes alternate in the movie, which bothered me a bit. Everything that had to do with the wife was shot in a very short period of time, and | would have liked to show her change: especially since she gave birth to a child. It would have been better if she could have had the baby for real. Q: You have been called a recluse, and it is said that you never go out. Do you think that your secluded lifestyle affects the moral sense that you impart in your films? The way you see life? ROHMER: | think that people who do not lead a secluded life might have difficulties to see life as it is. And | think the best point of view is that of a man who leads a secluded life. And | think that since you too lead a secluded life, you must agree with me. Q: Are you a practicing Catholic? ROHMER: Yes. But you must draw from that your own conclusions. Q: Now that you have completed the Six Moral Tales, do you have another series in mind? ROHMER: | have no project at the moment. | am taking a rest. Q: Are there any subjects that you find particularly interesting? ROHMER: A subject interests me in as much as it gives me the idea for a film. For the moment | do not have an idea for a film, so | am interested in everything and nothing. Q: Is it possible for a man to work truthfully? ROHMER: | think that it is difficult to examine one’s life truthfully, and that’s a little my idea in the Moral Tales: to show how difficult it is. And | think that’s a good END] definition of what | tried to do in the Moral Tales.