La fornaia di Monceau

Law student Barbet Schroeder meets Michèle Girardon in the street and makes a sort-of date for another time. She vanishes for a while. While he wanders looking for her, he flirts with bakery shop assistant Claudine Soubrier in one of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales.

It's a look at a small district in Paris, between the markets and shops, and doesn't seem to have much point other than that youth is simultaneously fickle and steadfast... and likes a bit of pastry. In fact, that pastry side becomes a bit of a metaphor for Mlle Soubrier in the mind of Schroeder, who narrates what's going on his own mind.

"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" 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

This is a short film by Eric Rohmer--and the first of his six so-called 'Morality Tales'. Unlike some of his later films, this one seems much more like a typical French New Wave film--with its unusual camera work (looking more like an amateur film at times), use of natural settings and unusual style.

"The Bakery Girl of Monceau" begins with a young man noticing a pretty lady as he walked to college. He's interested in her but they don't know each other at all--and he's working up the courage to talk to her. Eventually, he bumps into her and they talk a bit. He asks her out for coffee but she declines--but tells him she'd be willing in the future. The problem, however, is that for some time he returns to his daily route and doesn't see her. Instead, however, he becomes interested in a girl who works in a bakery. What will become of this and will the original girl return?

While I know that many love Rohmer and New Wave films, this one seems like it's more a practice film than a finished product. It's incredibly mundane--to the point of almost being banal. Because of this, it's not for the casual viewer--and a film that is really impossible to rate.

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.