Full Moon in Paris

French filmmaker Eric Rohmer will be celebrated with a six-film spotlight in April at the Film Society, coinciding with a two-week exclusive run of a new digital restoration of the director's 1984 film, Full Moon in Paris.

Eric Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs (April 17-30) will feature a cycle Rohmer began in 1981 that dealt with the themes of women being “dissatisfied or unhappy with being single or with the state of their relationships, and their efforts to find a way out of their loneliness,” according to the Film Society.

The series will be headlined by the two-week exclusive run of Full Moon in Paris. The film focuses on a young interior decorator (Pascale Ogier, in a performance that won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival) trying to balance two homes and two lives—one with a dutiful boyfriend, and the other as single girl in Paris.

[Related: Trailer and Poster for Restoration of Eric Rohmer's Full Moon in Paris]

Noted Florence Almozini, Senior Programmer at the Film Society: “Full Moon In Paris is a great classic film that has a lot of resonance today. People will enjoy revisiting it. It's set in the '80s with '80s music and clothes. It has the fabulous personality of its star Pascale Ogier and the strong presence of Fabrice Luchini in a supporting role.”

Other highlights include Pauline at the Beach (1983), about a 15-year-old girl who learns about love and life while on holiday with her beautiful cousin, and the “bookends” of the Comedies and Proverbs cycle: The Aviator’s Wife (1981), which follows a law student who makes some unexpected discoveries as he trails his girlfriend’s ex after witnessing the two of them leaving her apartment together, and Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987), about two girls tempted by each other’s boyfriends.

The series will conclude on April 30 with An Evening with Corina Copp and The Green Ray. Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Rohmer’s film follows a depressed, newly single Parisian secretary as she spends her summer vacation looking for happiness and true love when her holiday plans fall through.

Poet, writer, theater artist, and performer Corina Copp’s first book, The Green Ray, which will be published this month by Ugly Duckling Presse, uses Rohmer’s insistence on intuitive logic and green’s symbolic resonance as guiding principles. Copp will introduce Rohmer’s The Green Ray and read from her book of poems. Copies will be available for purchase following the screening.

Screenings will take place at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (144 West 65th Street). Tickets and a discount package for the series will go on sale Thursday, March 26. Single screening tickets are $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for Film Society members.


The Aviator's Wife

Eric Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs film descriptions and schedule follow:

The Aviator’s Wife / La femme de l’aviateur
Eric Rohmer, France, 1981, DCP, 104m
French with English subtitles
“It is impossible to think of nothing.” Rohmer’s Comedies and Proverbs series begins with the misunderstandings of youthful obsession, the vagaries of chance encounters, and Paris, always. When a law student (Philippe Marlaud) sees his girlfriend (Marie Rivière) step out of her apartment with her ex, he trails the man around the city, fearing the worst. But his private fears in public places are put into delightful perspective by an impish younger student (Anne-Laure Meury) he runs into. Shot in 16mm and featuring a song sung by Arielle Dombasle (as well as a vintage ’80s man purse). An NYFF19 selection. New digital restoration!
Wednesday, April 22, 6:50pm
Sunday, April 26, 4:30pm

Boyfriends and Girlfriends / L’ami de mon amie
Eric Rohmer, France, 1987, DCP, 103m
French with English subtitles
“The friends of my friends are my friends.” Rohmer uses the amorous misadventures of two girlfriends in the Paris suburbs to test the old adage in the final episode of his Comedies and Proverbs series. Taking an identifiable stab at a yuppie(ish) set, Rohmer’s witty Shakespearean roundelay involves two friends, buttoned-up Blanche (Emmanuelle Chaulet, in a superb debut) and free-spirit Lea (Sophie Renoir), and their current amours. The pair are tempted by each other’s love interests, testing both their friendship and their understanding of matters of the heart. An NYFF25 selection. New digital restoration!
Thursday, April 23, 6:50pm
Sunday, April 26, 2:00pm

Opens April 17 – Two-Week Exclusive:
Full Moon in Paris
Eric Rohmer, France, 1984, DCP, 102m
French with English subtitles
“He who has two women loses his soul; he who has two houses loses his mind.” In Rohmer’s fourth Comedies and Proverbs film, Louise, a young interior decorator (Venice Film Festival Best Actress winner Pascale Ogier), keeps two residences—one with her boyfriend, Remi, and one without. She chases the freedom of the single life in her Paris pied-à-terre, while Remi stays in the other residence, seemingly a homebody. Rohmer’s finely drawn characterization brings out the confusions and small devotions that complicate a familiar paradox, rarely rendered with such subtlety and maturity. With Fabrice Lucchini as Louise’s friend. A Film Movement Classics release. New digital restoration!


Boyfriends and Girlfriends

A Good Marriage / Le beau mariage
Eric Rohmer, France, 1982, DCP, 97m
French with English subtitles
“Who has not built castles in Spain?” Art-student Sabine (Béatrice Romand, the teenager in Claire’s Knee) swears off affairs with married men in favor of finding a good husband. But there’s a small problem with her selection process: she decides to pursue lawyer Edmond (André Dussollier) after meeting him just once at a party (thanks to matchmaker friend Clarisse, played by Arielle Dombasle). And dashing Edmond is not exactly on board with the program… The second of Rohmer’s Comedies and Proverbs films goes out to anyone who ever made a decision and stuck with it to the tragic end. New digital restoration!
Tuesday, April 21, 6:50pm
Sunday, April 26, 6:50pm

The Green Ray / Le rayon vert
Eric Rohmer, France, 1986, 35mm, 98m
French with English subtitles
“Ah, for the days / That set our hearts ablaze.” Rohmer’s mid-career triumph follows a depressed, newly single Parisian secretary as she spends her summer vacation looking for happiness and true love. Starring Rohmer axiom Marie Rivière as the directionless Delphine, the film’s a masterpiece about unspoken feelings of melancholy and uncertainty, fashioned from the simplest of elements: a change in plans when a holiday falls through. It’s a rare chronicle of in-between moments and moods that’s proven hugely influential, with a glorious, unforgettable guest appearance by a sunset… Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Sunday, April 19, 4:30pm
Thursday, April 30, 6:50pm (An Evening with Corina Copp)

Pauline at the Beach / Pauline à la plage
Eric Rohmer, France, 1983, 35mm, 94m
French with English subtitles
“He who talks too much will damage himself.” Rohmer won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival for this unforgettable tale of a 15-year-old girl (Amanda Langlet) learning the ways of grown-ups during a summer holiday with her beautiful divorcée cousin (Arielle Dombasle). The unrequited love, idle lust, and general folly of adults are backlit against the sincerity and curiosity of the observant teen. The Brittany misadventures are rendered in Nestor Almendros’s seaside photography, in his final collaboration with Rohmer. The third of Rohmer’s Comedies and Proverbs films also stars Pascal Greggory and Féodor Atkine.
Saturday, April 18, 4:30pm
Wednesday, April 29, 6:50pm