The second and third films of Rohmer’s career, La Boulangère de Monceau (1963) and La carrière de Suzanne (1963), are a short film and a medium-length film which he made in 1963. Together, these works form the first two parts of his Contes moraux cycle.
The Bakery Girl of Monceau
The protagonist of this first moral tale is a young Parisian who sets his sights on a tall young woman whom he regularly encounters on the street. At first he does not dare to speak to her, and when he finally finds the courage to ask her out, she does not turn up. A few weeks later he tries to charm a baker’s daughter, which he succeeds in doing: he arranges a rendezvous. However, when he suddenly encounters the first young woman again, he abandons his new conquest without hesitation.
This short film already explores Rohmer’s major themes: we follow the movements of a pedestrian within a defined space, in this case the streets of the 17th arrondissement. In Rohmer’s work, the walker is also a voyeur, torn between chance encounters (the brunette baker) and encounters he deliberately tries to provoke (the dream blonde). The plot of Ma nuit chez Maud in a nutshell.
Suzanne's Career
The main character is the reserved eighteen-year-old student Bertrand (Philippe Beuzen), who has little success in love and therefore mimics the cynical, contemptuous attitude of his slightly older friend, Guillaume (Christian Charrière).
As in many Nouvelle Vague films, the protagonists seem to spend their days in cafés – unless, of course, they are strolling through the streets of Paris – where they not only talk, debate, observe and drink, but also read, study, eat and chat up girls. In short, they do everything they can to escape the loneliness of their cramped rooms.
One day, the ‘Don Juan’ Guillaume meets Suzanne (Catherine Sée) in one such café (in France also known as a ‘zinc’ – originally a term for the bar, but nowadays used to refer to the whole café), with whom he strikes up a conversation. He soon invites her to a party at his flat, with the intention of seducing her, which he succeeds in doing. Their relationship, however, has both highs and lows, to which Bertrand is a helpless witness. Bertrand is both a comical and endearing character. For instance, he initially steadfastly refuses any invitation from Guillaume to go to a café or a ‘surboum’ (a spontaneous house party), using the excuse that he has to study or has an exam the next day, only to change his mind every time and accept the invitation after all. The dynamic of their friendship is based on this pattern.
Bertrand is annoyed by what he regards as Suzanne’s loose morals and free-spirited views, whilst Guillaume tries to set him up with Sophie (Diane Wilkinson), a friend of hers. Meanwhile, the two friends have no qualms about letting Suzanne – who is better off financially – foot the bill. The friendship between Guillaume and Bertrand also has an autobiographical dimension: in the contrast between the cynical seducer, who strings together both his conquests and his witty remarks, and the dreamy young man who scarcely dares to make use of his talents, Rohmer reflects his own relationship with Paul Gégauff, the dialogue writer for Le Signe du Lion.
At one point, Guillaume urges Bertrand to demonstrate his supposed psychic abilities, such as making the table at which they are sitting move. It is the first time that Rohmer introduces a supernatural element into his otherwise realistic chronicles – something he would do more often later on and which reaches a climax in Le Rayon vert.
Rohmer himself was not entirely satisfied with the technical shortcomings of these first two moral tales. Although they already contain the themes of fidelity and the Cartesian logic of his later work, they still lack the psychological subtlety that would characterise his later work.
- Patrick Duynslaegher