La boulangère de Monceau

The first of Eric Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" collection is lovely, twenty-five minute short about a young man who must choose between the girl of his longing and another, more attainable girl. The young man in question narrates this short film. On his daily journeys, he encounters a beautiful girl named Sylvie on a regular basis. He begins to fall for her and even stalks her to a point. When he goes several days without seeing her, the young man in question begins to search for her. In his search, he encounters a small bakery. The young man begins a daily routine of entering the bakery for a cookie and the young girl who works there begins to develop feelings for him. Though the young man resists his own feelings at first, he finally decides to ask her out. Trouble results, though, when he runs into Sylvie on that very day.

The Girl at the Monceau Bakery, the first Rohmer film I'd seen, is pretty impressive. In its short (about twenty-five minute) running time, this film manages to weave a story with very believable conflict and quick resolution. This is a very simple film and does not pull any punches. The young narrator is a realistic character: he's a college student with girls on the brain. He isn't mature enough to realize that his own decisions affect others just as much as they affect him. The young man is rather selfish and the moral dilemma that he faces stems from that. The acting here is not bad, but far from first rate. It is, however, a good early achievement from Rohmer. Watching this, I am intrigued to dig deeper into his body of work.

9/10

"The Bakery Girl of Monceau" is the first film in Eric Rohmer's great "Six Moral Tales" film series. While it doesn't match the excellence of later films in the series , it is still a great and charming short film that serves as a nice preview to what the film series would eventually become.

The film stars future filmmaker Barbet Schroeder (who went on to direct films such as "Maîtresse", "General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait", and "Koko: A Talking Gorilla") as a young law student who seems to fall in love with a young woman at a bakery-but not really. It's kind of a complicated situation in a very simple yet somewhat complicate short film. Really, you have to experience it for yourself and you'll understand what I mean by it being utterly simple yet overly complex at the same time.

In the end, Rohmer offers us a charming, witty, and romantic short film that is definitely one of the best short films I've seen in a long time, even if it doesn't offer a lot to write a review about.

The first of Eric Rohmer's six moral tales, The Girl at the Bakery Monceau is probably what newcomers to the unorthodox style of film-making Rohmer employs should first be exposed to. Not because they should be seen in order but more or less due to the fact that the film is under thirty minutes. As in all the tales the theme ( chauvinist male protagonist conflicted over two women) remains the same and in Monceau you are given a small dose of what will carry over into the full length explorations of men in self righteous struggle with reality and ideals.

A young law student on a nearly daily basis passes a young woman he is attracted to on the streets of Paris. Encouraged by his friend to pursue her he asks her out after literally bumping in to her. She agrees to set a date when they meet again but then disappears for days after. The young man begins to search for her by combing the area, sacrificing his meals to give him more time to do so. He substitutes pastry from a local bakery to cover his nourishment. Having no luck with finding Sylvie, he begins to pursue Jacqueline the bakery counter girl while he continues his search.

Rohmer's literary style can be quite trying and his protagonists obnoxiously condescending. His characters are neither heroic or noble. Rohmer's narrative style which depends heavily on interior monologue reveals some ugly truths that may not cause catastrophe but offer insightful points of view that makes the audience pause in reflection. We sometimes see ourselves in such reflections as well as friends and acquaintances.

Eugene O'Neil said "We live in illusion and die in reality." Nothing supplies illusion better than the darkened dream palace which allows us to storm a beach, race a car through city streets, go a round or two with Sugar Ray or get close to Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner. In all of his tales Rohmer narrows that gap, exposing a hum drum reality with a fickle illusion born of self deception. There is a subtle subversive reward to be found in all of the "Moral Tales" and with The Girl at the Bakery Monceau he is off to an excellent start.

Eric Rohmer's The Bakery Girl of Monceau isn't a very great film- the chief liability is Barbet Schroeder, the 'Young Man' as he's called, who isn't expressive much at all, almost stilted when he has to say his lines outside of the narration which is when he does fine- but it's one that has some very solid ideas about attachment to one who is more of an unknown, and possibly unattainable. Unlike My Night at Maud's, however, Rohmer doesn't infuse a religious context, but rather that of the anxious and romantic youth, of a guy who has nothing else to do outside of his minor class work than to find a possible one-true-love walking along a particular street of Paris. He waits all the time for a woman he was at first shy to introduce himself to, and doesn't see her. His habit of getting a cookie or two from the local bakery leads him to the bakery girl, a wide-eyed girl of (only!) 18, who doesn't go out with boys but may make an exception for the charming young man.

Meanwhile, Rohmer lays on the moral dilemma- or sort of a put-on of a moral dilemma, which actually makes it more interesting- of this character while making it a surprisingly cool film directorial-wise. As great as he can be with his dialog, until this I haven't taken Rohmer as too much on the scale of being AS great as a director (not bad at all, to be sure, though a slight peg less than his old buddies Truffaut and Godard). But with this small-scale story and totally on-location scenes, he has some striking moments in just showing the young man walking on the street- jump cuts, quite amazing even in such rough form- and in the bakery, where the slightest bits of a close-up or an image of a cookie dropping mark as something significant. There's even a moment or two when the young man is with his friend early on where the camera speed seems to come close to looking like a silent film.

At only 23 minutes long, this isn't a very complex little film, and it ends sort of at a 'that's that' kind of way, but it sets a very good precedent for the rest of the 'Moral tales' to follow. It's the kind of short I'd probably like to watch again if I have a half hour to kill in a random moment in the future.

An interesting short film by Eric Rohmer. A university student in Paris falls in love with a girl with whom he encounters about everyday in the street but cannot find the courage to talk.

The film mostly consists of the narration of intimate thoughts of the man while he is chasing the girl in the streets. To console himself in her absence, he begins flirting with another girl in a bakery. His thoughts become even more complicated. The narrative style is so impressive that you find yourself reading the protagonist's mind.