Les nuits de la pleine lune

Eric Rohmer is one of my favorite directors because he captures human drama without being dramatic at all. The characters talks, explains their emotions, tries to make themselves understood by others, but there is a constant misunderstanding that cannot be explained. There is a vague feeling of despair and the futility of communication in general. When I first saw Eric Rohmer's film it reminded me of one of those TV shows that tries to portray a normal day-to-day life to teach foreign language. I feel Eric Rohmer's specialty is in this focus on language and communication, not to portray a specific story, but to portray communication and thus leads us to a story "out side" of the communication.

Full Moon in Paris (1984) Directed by: Éric Rohmer Starring: Pascale Ogier, Tchéky Karyo, Fabrice Luchini, Virginie Thévenet

Éric Rohmer's Full Moon in Paris (Les Nuits de la pleine lune) is a beautifully restrained and intellectually rich meditation on love, freedom, and the contradictions of modern relationships. The story centers on Louise (Pascale Ogier), a young interior designer who leads a double life-living with her boyfriend Rémi in the suburbs, while keeping a separate apartment in Paris to preserve her independence.

Louise believes she can have it both ways: the comfort of a stable relationship and the freedom of solo nights out in the city. But under the full moon-Rohmer's subtle metaphor for emotional volatility-desires surface, truths emerge, and her illusion of balance begins to unravel. Her flirtation with other men, especially her friend Octave (Fabrice Luchini), is less about passion and more about identity-about testing the boundaries of selfhood in love.

Pascale Ogier, in one of her final roles before her untimely death, delivers a luminous, deeply nuanced performance. She captures the internal conflict of a woman who craves autonomy but fears solitude. Rohmer's direction is, as always, dialogue-driven and observational-favoring natural light, long conversations, and unadorned realism.

What makes Full Moon in Paris so compelling is its emotional subtlety. There's no melodrama-just the quiet ache of human contradiction. Rohmer doesn't judge Louise; he lets her live out her choices, even when they lead to unexpected sorrow.

The final scene is a revelation-melancholy and quietly devastating. It's a film that lingers, not with answers, but with the haunting question of whether love and freedom can truly coexist. A bittersweet gem of French cinema, both romantic and ruthlessly honest.

Review written by artist jayakumar jrain.

"But Louise cannot have her cake and eat it too, she is over-confident in rationalizing her and Remi's situation, openly suggesting that their relationship can be terminated if they find someone else whom they love more, only to be hoisted by her own petard, after finally bringing a random guy to her pied-à-terre, Louise has a rude awakening on this night of full moon, that she has finally gotten over with meaningless sex, and it is Remy, their home in the banlieue beckon her, however, Rohmer makes it clear that it is not just she who has the say-so in this precarious relationship, but at the very least, she has some place to return to when her entire world crumbles down."

read my full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks

Maybe I've OD'd on Rohmer, just having looked at this film, "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" and "The Aviator's Wife" (all on DVD)in a single week. This has the silly addition to Rohmer's other obsessions, of the idea that the full moon causes unusual behavior. Actually the girl behaves just the way the protagonists of the other films do when the phase of the moon is unspecified, that is, very indecisive. The main male character is nicer than the one in most of Rohmer's films.

If I had only one director's films to live with I would choose Rohmer. If I had to reduce his output to ten I would choose all of the six that make up the ' Comedies and Proverbs ' series, plus a couple from his ' Four Seasons ' and a couple from his ' Moral Tales. ' Les nuits de la pleine lune ' the fourth in his ' Comedies and Proverbs ' is his most tragic, and bears endless watching. It shows how an emotional house cannot be a divided one. As simple and as complex as that. Pascale Ogier is excellent in the role of a young woman who must live quite literally in two places; one with her partner in the suburbs, the other in Paris. She wants freedom and she wants to be attached and during the night of a full moon this situation comes to a climax. It is tragic because the outcome is not her choice, and I for one feel that this will be repeated again and again. She loves to be admired and wanted, and yet she is not at all promiscuous. I was struck too by the decors of both places and Rohmer's use of colour. Blue predominates. In her place in Paris she decorates it herself, and in her partner's place she seems to have only a small amount of choice. I could try to interpret the meaning of this, and also the meaning of the full moon which seems as meaningful as the sun in ' Le Rayon Vert ' also in the same series, but I will not indulge in analysis. I will only mention one observation; the moon is a sort of cold madness, while the sun in ' Le Rayon Vert ' and the experience of witnessing the elusive Green Ray before the sun sets promises the warmth of love. As usual Rohmer's choice of actors is perfect and that his dialogue is rich and clear. Why is he my favourite director ? That too is a mystery to me. I want to keep it that way because if I explained it to myself I might lose the magic of his films.