Der Freund meiner Freundin

The French film L'ami de mon amie (1987) was written and directed by Éric Rohmer. It was shown with two English titles: Boyfriends and Girlfriends and My Girlfriend's Boyfriend.

The film has five protagonists: Emmanuelle Chaulet as Blanche, Anne-Laure Meury as Adrienne, Eric Viellard as Fabien, François-Eric Gendron as Alexandre, and Sophie Renoir as Lea. (Yes--she's related to the painter and all of the cinematic Renoir family.)

Blanche has moved to a new apartment in Cergy-Pontoise, a trendy new town near Paris. It's there that she meets Lea, who introduces her to Alexandre. Blanche is attracted to Alexandre, but he already has a girlfriend--Adrienne.

It takes a while for the friends to sort themselves out. While the sorting is taking place, they talk and talk--Rohmer's speciality.

And, of course, Rohmer had an eye for attractive actors. All of the women are beautiful, both of the men are handsome, and everyone desires someone else's lover.

This movie is the final installment of in Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs series. The film has a solid IMDB rating of 7.5. I enjoyed it, and rated it 8.

P. S. In 1988, Sophie Renoir was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actress for her part in this movie.

This film is among the best of Rohmer's films. Why ? Because he observes our little snobberies, our small little lies, and in his detached way he loves humanity for them. It is set in Cergy which back in 1987 was a sort of new ' paradise ' just outside of Paris. Two young women who work and study there become friends, and one has a boyfriend and the other does not. There is a fourth in this, a supposed perfect young man who can seduce anyone. The four become entangled in a dance of love, both in retreat and in advance, and light though the subject maybe it has a profound knowledge of our illusions, and our ability of changing lovers that very often hurts no one. And the wonder of the scenario is that like the titles of two Shakespeare plays,' Much Ado About Nothing ' becomes ' All's Well That Ends Well. ' Those who accuse it as being superficial should realise that the surface is deceptive, and that obvious depths are often even more superficial, often becoming self dramatics (on the part of the directors) and the situations he or she creates, or simply portrays, to often imposed melodramatic formulas. Rohmer watches and catches the glance and the gesture that rings true and many do not have this gift. All four, Sophie Renoir, Emmanuelle Chaulet, Francois-Eric Gendron, and Eric Viellard are superb, especially Chaulet and Viellard, who have a chemistry together which is a joy to see. If the sceptics try to convince that Rohmer is shallow just remember that one of the masters of so-called extreme cinema, Quentin Tarantino, loves Rohmer's films. If I had to watch only one director it would be Rohmer. I0 of his best films on a desert island would be my ultimate choice.

Rohmer used 4 or even 5 character affair, dip with the scent of peculiar triangles.

Unlike other French New Waves directors, who vernally succeed. Rohmer dug his bravura technique at the late year, and also inherited the mature, non-jocular, less-mechanical (or too dry to be mechanical) style.

He tried using these 5 individuals with the most simple, direct, lucid cinematography, which included minimalism settings capered with his iconic use of color, and no fancy editing which made the picture quite bland, deconstruct the story of love.

The color is beguiling, the Emmanuelle Chaulet is simply divine. The pace is slow, but the romance is overt. I'm just not such deep in love as the film did, need to be rewatched when people fall in Descarts' unrequited love.

Eric Rohmer was more than one of the directors who formed the French New Wave. He also wrote a lot of surveys and articles about cinema, especially about his favorite director, F.W. Murnau, out who he wrote his dissertation. His first article that got published in the year 1948 was titled (directly translated:) "Film, art of space." In the year 1962 Eric Rohmer published his academic survey called: "The construction of space in Murnau's Faust." While reading about his surveys and articles, it's no surprise that space in Rohmer's films seems to be as important as the plot.

Eric Rohmer's career started with problems, and it wasn't going forward. But when he got off the ground, he proceeded more purposefully than anyone. When the new wave era ended in 1964, the directors of it started eventually finding their own path. Eric Rohmer started his series of six film, The Moral Tales and continued with Comedies & Proverbs in the 1980's. L'ami de mon amie (My Girlfriend's Boyfriend) is sixth and the last one in the series. It builds around the proverb: "My friends' friends are my friends." The comical situations emerge between two women who unintentionally swap boyfriends.

Two women suddenly meet while having lunch. One of the two women is Blanche, she is a skinny, uptight young woman, who is still searching for herself. The other is Lea, she's self-confident and a very feminine person. They both have something going on with men, so the main characters have their opponents; shy Fabien and a true player, Alexandre.

While trying to figure out the space of My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, I can't miss the futuristic city the characters live in. I got the feeling that Eric Rohmer isn't trying to tell a story of four specific people who live in France. To me he's telling about all the people living in these suburbs of Paris. The space of a futuristic city, the city full of postmodern architecture without any past. This theme of the milieu leads to rootlessness. The people of this city have no past, each of them like to analyze and talk about themselves. But none of them really know who they are.

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend offered these kind of things for me. In addition to its intelligent narrative, it is full of hilarious comical situations. Eric Rohmer builds four very interesting characters which will take you on board.

"My friends' boyfriends are my boyfriends."

I am not a particular fan of Eric Rohmer's films. I generally find them very talking and slow--although I know most critics adore his films. This being said, I have enjoyed a few of his films-- particularly his later movies. And, I really enjoyed "Boyfriends and Girlfriends". However, I did not like it at first--it grew on me as I watched. Because of that, I really recommend you stick with this one.

The film begins with Blanche and Lea meeting for the first time. They soon become friends and begin spending their lunch hours together. Lea is the more vivacious of the two and she has a boyfriend, Fabien. As for Blanche, who is more the subject of this film, she's rather lonely and has no love life. But, over time, as Lea and Fabien become more and more distant, Blanche finds herself attracted to Fabien. Lea couldn't care less--as she is now falling for Alexandre--a man Blanche had been interested in dating. What's next? See the film.

As I mentioned above, this is a talky and rather slow film--at least for a while. However, the film all comes together very, very well-- and the ending is simply smashing. Well worth seeing.