La Collectionneuse was directed by Eric Rohmer and released in 1967. It was the third movie of Rohmer’s six moral tales, and his first feature film in color. The movie follows a man named Adrian who goes out to live in the country to find peace. He wants to take a break from his life and do literally nothing and is accompanied by his friend Daniel. Everything is going well until he finds out that he will be sharing the house with not only Daniel, but a young woman named Haydee. Haydee is considered as a “collector”, a collector of men. She has a new man every night, and sometimes a different one in the morning as well.
Haydee changes Adrian’s plans. He does not want to be attracted to her but he cannot fight it. Haydee plays games with his head until the two finally decide to be together. At this point Adrian changes his mind once again and leaves Haydee with no warning.
The themes that I saw in this film were loyalty, happiness, and lust. Haydee has no loyalty to anyone, which explains why she constantly has a new man in her life. She does not know what she wants, and it seems that she will never be happy. Adrian thought that the peace of the country and doing nothing would make him happy, but this was not the case. He then thinks that he will be happy with Haydee but once he has her he realizes that this does not make him happy either. Lust was the most prominent theme in the movie. Both Adrian and Daniel desire Haydee at one point but Haydee does not know what she desires. Lust drives this movie, and causes many problems throughout the film.
This film was very interesting. It was a different type of movie and did not have a happy ending. Instead of focusing on one relationship between a man and a woman, Rohmer focuses on how Haydee makes others act. She turns Daniel into a mess, and confuses Adrian to the point that she is all he can think about. Rohmer made a masterpiece with this film.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Les Bonnes Femmes
Les Bonnes Femmes was a film directed by Claude Chabrol in 1960. The film followed the lives of four shop girls in Paris. They are all daydreamers and dread their job. They only look foward to going out and partying every night.
Chabrol deliberately portrays his characters to be very exaggerated. The men in the story are all very weird characters. Marcel and Albert are portrayed to be rude and idiotic. They are overly annoying in this film. Rita’s fiancé is weak and quit, and will not stand up for Rita in front of his parents nor will he defend the women in the pool. The only man who seems to be of good character is Andre, but he actually psychotic and kills Jaqueline in the end of the film. I feel as though Chabrol makes his characters overact on purpose, such as the girl’s boss. The boss is not a very likeable character, but this is done purposely. The men in the movie are portrayed as immoral, and are all not likeable men.
The theme of love is constantly shown throughout the movie. All of the women are desperate for love and continually search for it. Rita seems to play off the fact that she is unhappy with her fiancé. I thought that during the dinner with his parents, Rita seemed miserable. Jane searches for love during her parties which do not bring her any redeemable men, just the annoyance of Marcel and Albert. Jane has a false sense of love and thinks that the man who is stalking her is destined to be with her. This ends up being Andre and when the two are together Andre kills Jane. The women are all looking for the same thing by different means, and none are successful.
Overall, this film was very interesting. It was a different film for the New Wave era in films because there was no specific relationship that the movie was built around. It was a very interesting movie with many surprises and plot twists.
Chabrol deliberately portrays his characters to be very exaggerated. The men in the story are all very weird characters. Marcel and Albert are portrayed to be rude and idiotic. They are overly annoying in this film. Rita’s fiancé is weak and quit, and will not stand up for Rita in front of his parents nor will he defend the women in the pool. The only man who seems to be of good character is Andre, but he actually psychotic and kills Jaqueline in the end of the film. I feel as though Chabrol makes his characters overact on purpose, such as the girl’s boss. The boss is not a very likeable character, but this is done purposely. The men in the movie are portrayed as immoral, and are all not likeable men.
The theme of love is constantly shown throughout the movie. All of the women are desperate for love and continually search for it. Rita seems to play off the fact that she is unhappy with her fiancé. I thought that during the dinner with his parents, Rita seemed miserable. Jane searches for love during her parties which do not bring her any redeemable men, just the annoyance of Marcel and Albert. Jane has a false sense of love and thinks that the man who is stalking her is destined to be with her. This ends up being Andre and when the two are together Andre kills Jane. The women are all looking for the same thing by different means, and none are successful.
Overall, this film was very interesting. It was a different film for the New Wave era in films because there was no specific relationship that the movie was built around. It was a very interesting movie with many surprises and plot twists.
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