Claire's Knee

In many ways, Rohmer's films recall Ozu: they wash over you, unembellished, disarming but fleeting. Here are people, take them as they are: for all their faults and strengths, too real to be neatly classified into categorical right and wrong. Claire's Knee is, for my taste, probably his greatest work. Watch these characters justify their behavior, their love or lack thereof, to themselves and to others. This level of textual literacy is appreciated, and the scenery is just magnificent, lovely.

Jerome is despicable, with unconvincing justification for his foolish ideas and behavior. And there's his friend Aurora, who manipulates and encourages him into pursuing his baser instincts (all for the sake of literature, of course!). What makes this film palatable are Laura and Claire: two completely different young girls, but exceedingly well-drawn, believable and sympathetic. I still didn't like this one as much as the earlier Moral Tales, which I feel are more vibrant and well-rounded.

There's a light creepiness underlying the entire film that keeps the you at arms length throughout the film, and yet the characters are interesting enough to draw you in. As absurd as Jerome's justifications for his behaviour are, they're interesting in the wider view of how people in general justify their actions. The young girls in the film are also quite interesting in how they manage to portray so many aspects of youth.

Visually stunning, the colors left me floored. I felt that the dialogue was entirely believable for a bunch of people with all the time in the world in a majestic landscape. If their words were not playful, what could this movie have been about?

Rohmer takes a character who is in some ways unlikable and yet manages to take a sympathetic look at him to leave us fascinated by what goes through his mind and, even though we might not want him to succeed in his pathetic and questionable ways, I was still left feeling sorry for how he was going to enter a seemingly loveless marriage. The Summer locales are beautiful, the dialogue impeccable and the film is thoroughly compelling.

So was it just normal for French people in the 70s to bone teenagers?

Too many nonsensical moments between all the philosophizing. I love Rohmer, but this is not one of his best.

It's a visual masterpiece. Nymphic tennis, the mountain climb, Claire herself, all stunning. It could be more enjoyable as a movie instead of a visual extravaganza but so what. Rohmer's dealing with color is so unique. Instead of going for the bright and pastel of Godard or the disregard of Truffaut he just makes the normal colors matter. I like colors. They be dope.

I like talky films, and I thought that this was just excellent. Well-written, well-acted and well-shot.

This film had decent dialogue but yet had nothing interesting or meaningful to say about anything. Please attempt to move onto an issue that exists above the waist. Scenery is unbelievably beautiful yet the characters don't even appreciate it which made me angry. The best part of this movie was the final scene, in which the lead character literally explains the entire movie you just watched in detail. Thanks for treating your film like a sitcom, Rohmer!

Always weird to stumble upon the inspiration for a film you liked and damn Guadagnino pulled so much from this for "Call Me By Your Name". That aside, I like this a bit less than the other two Moral Tales I've seen - the whole age thing gets a bit creepy at times, even though its a beautiful film to behold.

11 Subat '17 - ofiste dilsad ile & filmdeki adamin, yazar karakterin bir karakteri gibi davranmasi ve sonrasinda donup tum izledigimiz yasananlari bir de agzindan anlatmasini, bir anlamda gercek ile kurmacanin arasindaki cizgilerde gidip gelmesini ve bunu bir oyuna cevirmesini cok sevdim.

Strange and interesting.

My first Rohmer, though it's interesting to compare and contrast this with the other moral tales I've now seen. Despite all characters carrying themselves with assured casualness, they go through so many changes, mainly due to them simply following their desires. A careful film that manages to perfectly plot itself out, making it tantalising and anticipatory in its own way, showing us the excitement and follies of determination and determinism.

The main character of this film is probably my least favorite person in a Rohmer movie. He's the absolute worst; morally bankrupt, but in a pseudovillainous way. I guess the cool part is that everybody else in the film seems to realize this, so it's interesting to watch them react to his petty and pathetic behavior. Especially as those reactions often consist of either anger or laughter.

# 440

Supposedly 'the perfect film', my score suggests it might be pretty close (although subjective criteria meant I liked a couple of his other films better).

The first Rohmer I have loved

I probably liked this because Annecy is the place in France where I've spent the most time and it's very scenic. I loved the dialogue also. It was very direct and didn't seem like conversations anybody would ever actually have - at least in my world - giving an unusually clear window into the minds of the characters.

Suffers somewhat from being too direct in expressing the feelings of its characters, but the dialogue and scenarios are consistently engaging, and Rohmer's smart use of hard edits creates a real sense of anticipation. Overall, it is quite an incisive look at desire and the way that people, especially men, delude themselves about their feelings, intentions and behaviour towards the opposite sex.

I have some blockage in my brain that prevents me from liking Rohmer films.

450

The movie seems very aware of this man being a fool fooling himself, but I can't work out if the movie is aware of how bizarre the body language being depicted is. Could be deliberate, but it's rather too discomforting and distancing, for me at least. Interesting for the dialogue circling desire, but I can't consider it one of Rohmer's best.

Not great. Very weird. Still had some beautiful shots and makes me want to ride a boat around a lake, but dear god both these main characters are villains and disturbing.

This movie feels incomplete, but it's set in such a beautiful area that you can be distracted from that fact fairly easily.

Full of delicious relationships, but too talky

passioante

A lot of arrogant statements made in such a short amount of time. Scenes with the man and the teens are a bit creepy too, the ones with him and his friend are nice.

Beautiful colour.

Summer in south-east France, the good life.

7?

Many years ago, when IMDB was the place for film discussion, anyone who didn't like a talky, philosophical film was told to "go back to watching Transformers." This is my second Rohmer, and both made me yearn for a good explosion. It falls into that category of movies like Lolita and Death in Venice that tackle love and lust in a peculiar and uncomfortable way.

watched: 2013, 2021

not quite the bee's knees i was expecting but aurora was quite a personality

a lovely drama with the most realistic and complex character mosaic i've seen from rohmer yet. there's also something about the photography in his colour films that has a real natural beauty. still, i haven't found any of his films to date to be unique or moving enough to be truly worthy of great status.

Versão moralista de Ligações Perigosas.

Great Movie

Rohmer's films come from more of a literary than cinematic tradition, and the joy in them is their dialogue. You can describe what this film's plot is about, but it inevitably fails to do it justice. It's the fifth of his "Six Moral Tales", and easily the most subtle of the six. The morality of this one becomes somewhat difficult to penetrate, but that really seems to be part of it's appeal.

A complex and juicy drama of erotic tensions, Claire's Knee is one of the finest efforts I've seen by Rohmer. It does have his usual weaknesses: The incessant dialogue too often has characters self-analyzing, overexposing their psychologies and leaving little room for subtext and mystique. Their very personalities seem unnaturally similar as a result. I felt relieved whenever something remained a hint. Still, I thought the last act was well done, and liked how it played out.

Another treat from Rohmer. Whereas some filmmaking can have a musical quality to it, Rohmer achieves that effect with plain, spoken dialogue, which is rarely, if ever, where it manifests itself. There's always at least two layers in pretty much any given sentence in Claire's Knee, as well as a feeling that, in spite of a general lack of cinematographic razzle dazzle, this stuff could only work in the cinema.

385

Again Rohmer depicting deluded Men - their feelings, intentions and behaviour towards the opposite sex especially underage girls.

This is a twisted and interesting little movie about emotional manipulation and rationalization/self-delusion. Beautifully shot. I think it's actually quite dark even though it's not really played that way and there's an undercurrent of creepy through the whole thing. Unsure how much of this was intended, but it is interesting. Not really my favorite kind of movie, but it's kind of odd and thought-provoking.

Would play better with some softcore lovemaking every ten minutes or so.

Some of the acting was pretty terrible, Jean-Claude and Beatrice excluded.

A sophisticated, literate gem. A film full of grace and gossamer joys.

#416

Kind of ridiculous with no truly believable characters (perhaps except Claire), but it works because of how each character represents a part of our own selves.

It's beautifully shot and intelligent in its critique of bourgeois morals sugarcoated in philosophical BS. But, it's also creepy af. Why did Rohmer need underage girls? why does he need all this touching between a 35 yo and them? why does he have to show them in light attires? It almost feels like he's doing exactly what he pretends to criticize... sexualizing young girls, but you know "for art". Or is Rohmer aware of it and goes full meta? boh. Also, as usual with Rohmer, so bourgeois.

A mostly pleasant (yet somewhat slight) morality tale about desire. There is ALOT of talking, which is not necessarily a bad thing at all. But it's the KIND of talking that sometimes grates. Characters sit around and talk about EXACTLY what they're feeling and thinking, instead of the filmmakers conveying that through visuals and symbolism...well, except for the knee obsession, of course. I initially found Jerome loathsome, but I came around on him by the end, and ultimately enjoyed this.

That Obscure Object of Desire: A middle-aged man's fantasies with two sisters.