Why Éric Rohmer wore disguises to his own film premieres
Éric Rohmer is one of the most influential directors from the French New Wave movement, despite the fact that his work doesn’t exactly resemble the characteristics that you would associate with films from this era. While directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were experimenting with the medium through films like Pierrot Le Fou and Jules Et Jim, using fast-paced editing style, bright and flashy colours and loosely structured narratives, Rohmer was twisting experimental cinema to the other end of the spectrum.
While there films were experimental for their speed and jagged structure, Rohmer’s films were revolutionary for their slowness and naturalism, becoming radical in how slice-of-life they were, breaking the boundaries of filmmaking by making the process of filmmaking invisible. When watching his films, you get the sense that you are watching real life, something that was completely opposing to the style of his contemporaries.
Through films like The Green Ray, La Collectionneuse and Claires Knee, Rohmer explores his long-lasting fascination with the complexity of romantic relationships, loneliness and intimacy, focusing on characters who are often confused about what they want from their relationships and struggling to create genuine connection with other people. Often, his characters are clouded by sexual desire and lust, confusing this for love and becoming jaded by the unfulfilling nature of these relationships.
His work was absolutely crucial in the ‘nothing really happens’ genre of cinema, creating an introspective and thoughtful mood as we follow the everyday lives and quandaries of characters who are grappling with weighty moral dilemmas. In Love in the Afternoon, we follow a husband who is debating whether or not to cheat on his wife, becoming consumed by the burden of his desire and the appeal of doing something out of character. In A Tale of Summer, we follow a young man who is torn between three women on holiday, unsure of which person to date and eventually, giving up on love entirely and deciding to return home to buy a speaker system that will fulfil his needs more than any romantic partner.
Rohmer was incredibly insightful and in tune with the complexity of interpersonal relationships and people’s reprised desires. He articulated something that no other director has been able to do. He is a master of exploring emotional grey areas and sparking questions about deeply human issues that concern us all.
However, despite being one of the most iconic French directors of all time, Rohmer was incredibly private and averse to fame. He was unconcerned by status and preferred to be unknown, with his name not even being his own and fashioning ‘Eric Rohmer’ by merging the names of two writers he admired. As well as this, his own mother didn’t even know he was a director, and she died without ever knowing what he did for a living and his cinematic influence.
But perhaps more bizarre than this, is Rohmer’s shape-shifting ability that he adopted at his won premieres, with the director not wanting to be recognised and feeling embarrassed by receiving any level of attention or praise. Because of this, he would often wear disguises such as fake moustaches to his premieres, preferring to be inconspicuous and simply observe the reaction to his work without being validated for it. This is perhaps what marks him as one of the truly great directors – motivated only by his love of the craft and remaining completely unbothered as to how it was received, focusing on his love for filmmaking instead.
