The closing part of the Six Moral Tales playfully interweaves the motifs of the previous films of the cycle, bringing the theme of a love triangle and moral choice to the level of pure excellence.
Love in the Afternoon is the most erotic of all Rohmer’s films, where the role of the female seducer is played by the French model Zouzou (Daniиle Ciarlet), sex icon for the 1968 youth generation. While maintaining all the main elements of the previous films, such as the dilemma of infidelity, referring to Blaise Pascal’s wager, and elegant picture composition, where each character’s gesture is equally important, this movie also gains a clear comedy component, with the married protagonist, played by Bernard Verley, dreaming about a special device for suppressing the will of women. In a series of imagined settings, scenes from the previous films are restaged and played by the same actresses: Franзoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault, Haydйe Politoff, Aurora Cornu, and Bйatrice Romand.
Color solution, developed by Rohmer together with cinematographer Nйstor Almendros, has a special role in this film, which is aiming to realize stylistic harmony in every detail, inviting the viewer to enjoy the subtle play of color nuances in the clothes of the characters, interior designs and street views.
The screening will be introduced by a lecture delivered by journalist, critic and media consultant Katya Fedorova, who will talk about the interconnection between cinema and the fashion industry, the styles of the 1960s and 1970s, using examples from the movie series Six Moral Tales by Eric Rohmer, and why fashion style from the film Love in the afternoon is relevant again today.
Love in the Afternoon
Director Éric Rohmer. France, 1972. 95 minutes.
16+
