4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle

The more Rohmer I see, the greater my appreciation and love grows for him. Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle is a wonderful film about a Parisian girl and a girl from the country who meet, become friends, and then move in together in an apartment in Paris. The film consists of little more than the two girls living their lives, sharing their philosophies, and acting on those philosophies. The two lead performances, by Joelle Miquel (Reinette) and Jessica Forde (Mirabelle) are outstanding. And then there are a lot of colorful - but not too colorful - side characters in the four tales, like the extraordinarily rude waiter (Philippe Laudenbach) and the art dealer (Fabrice Luchini, the star of my favorite Rohmer film, the incomparably unique Perceval le gallois). This is a film for people who love people, their thoughts, and their talk. 10/10.

Adventure one sees townie Mirabelle, who has never really had cause to take time to observe nature, experience a series of minor revelations about country life. Experiences that, curiously, she doesn't seem to carry back home into the Parisian episodes. Indeed the first episode feels like a film-apart, largely because it's not referred back to. The remaining adventures concern how Reinette's fixed ideas cause her headaches in the city. While it's easy to have a set of unwaivering morals and manners living a more solitary life in the country, it's not as easy in 'the big smoke'. Discovering Parisians have a much more fluid moral compass causes Reinette horror and the viewer a degree of amusement. Indeed Episode Two is Rohmer doing, of all things, broad comedy - complete with a Fawlty-esque waiter. The director also diverts from his well-trodden path with the absence of romance from this movie (accordingly the film storms through the Bechdel test). I also loved the fact there also isn't the shadow of parental influence, the church or a peer group which sometimes operate, with varying degrees of success, in Rohmer's work. The girls really only have each other as a soundboard and that makes the new friendship between these unlikely flatmates all the more engaging.

I love Eric Rohmer's movies mainly those in which, like in this one, he shows normal daily life that can have important episodes which can be gracious, humorous, even sometimes having poetry or a bit of mystery, unexpectedness and adventure. He shows his characters thinking and philosophizing about apparently simple things and behaviours and those thoughts often contrast with real life events. We can also see through the dialogues the contrast of the universe of values we may have in mind and the real world outside. In this movie two young girls meet by chance when one of them has got a flat tyre while riding a bicycle in the countryside and the other one offers to help her to solve the problem. From now on they become close friends though they are very different in temperament, mentality and behaviour. The one who lives in the country goes to Paris and the other one who lived there already, shares her apartment with her new friend. Both are university students, the Parisian one in Ethnology and the country one in Fine Arts. After the first adventure of her meeting they live in Paris 3 more episodes of daily life which were adventurous but without going much beyond the natural and ordinary and shown with great simplicity but also with great mastery. Only in my opinion the fourth and last episode is a bit too fanciful but the movie is good in its whole despite that.

I think I used the same words about Eric Rohmer's Conte d'hiver, who also directed this movie, about two friends who meet in the country and later live together in Paris, consists of 4 segments. All four slow-paced and totally true to life. The two great actresses, the dialogs and the storylines themselves are all taken out of life, almost documentary-like. I liked the third one the most. It is a true joy to see these two different friends. They are a quiet couple in Paris quite different from the the two friends in also recommended La Vie Revee Des Anges.

Reinette's antics are meant to irritate, and Mirabelle is why you keep watching. This dynamic of contrasting characters (the 'neurotic' complimented by 'the cooler friend'), often appears in Rohmer films: there's melodramatic Blanche and likeable Léa in L'Ami de mon amie; childish Magali and demure Isabelle in Conte d'automne; and unbearable Sabine and beautiful Clarisse in Le Beau Mariage.

The grocery store scene in Four Adventures stands out as the highlight of the film to me. Rohmer took us through the most interesting scene in what felt like real-time, and then, in the very next scene, allowed Mirabelle to describe the event to Reinette. Was she going to exaggerate or tell the truth?! I thought that was a brilliant little moment, where we were able to be voyeurs not once, but twice.

Overall, this little gem about an unlikely friendship puts you exactly where you want to be: living in Rohmer's France for 1 hour and 39 minutes. My only complaint is: I wished Rohmer had worked with Jessica Forde (the actress who plays Mirabelle) in more of his films. She was a natural; one of my favorite Rohmerettes.