Rohmer, Eric, 1920–2010, French film director and writer, b. Jean-Marie Maurice Schérer. He was a founder (1950) of La Gazette du cinéma, cowrote (1957) a study of Alfred Hitchcock, and edited (1957–63) the influential journal Cahiers du cinéma. One of the founders of France's cinematic New Wave, he made short films in the 1950s before directing his first feature, The Sign of Leo (1959), in which he initiated his typically calm and intellectual style, emphasizing the flow of conversation and ideas and portraying little physical action. In 1962 he began a cycle of “Six Moral Tales,” which explore relationships between men and women, achieving popular and critical success with My Night at Maud's (1969), Claire's Knee (1970), and Chloe in the Afternoon (1972). After two stylized period dramas, The Marquise of O (1976) and Perceval (1978), he began another contemporary cycle, “Comedies and Proverbs,” highlighted by the acclaimed Pauline at the Beach (1983) and Summer (1986). Rohmer's later films include his “Four Seasons” quartet (1990–98), the historical The Lady and the Duke (2001), and his final work, Romance of Astrée and Céladon (2007).
See study by C. G. Crisp (1988).
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