La Punition

Rouch seems most interested here in this question; how do we fulfil our desires? And this obviously depends first on determining those desires. This is film as philosophical wandering and indeed philosophical wondering, and for the most part this works well from the perspective of the viewer (at least this viewer) in answering Rouch's question. The dialogue is highly stimulating and almost matched by the visual presence of Paris itself.

A young girl hoping for a little excitement meets three guys, after which she begins to realise that all Parisian men are the same (and perhaps the women aren’t so different either). The improvised dialogue here is sometimes interesting but it becomes a little repetitive: the men are all too keen to talk half-disparagingly about her youth and inexperience, but one feels it’s they who are not up to the task of having anything much to say. Perhaps we’re meant to feel the same frustration she does.

A fairly short Parisian ethnographic experiment by Jean Rouch where the participants are clearly playing loose variations on themselves and letting their perspectives on life bump into each other.