Chloe in the Afternoon

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Cast & Crew

Bernard Verley
Frédéric

Zouzou
Chloé

Francoise Verley
Hélène

Daniel Ceccaldi
Gérard

Éric Rohmer
Director

Audience Reviews for Chloe in the Afternoon

• Jul 25, 2014

  <b>Eric Rohmer's 6th Moral Tale</b> --><i>Possible moral topic(s) treated:</i> Infidelity and poligamy. Jesus, what a powerful closure! I'm not talkinng about the film as a whole, which remains as my least favorite moral tale (and it is still very good), but about the ending. Again abrupt, direct, heartfelt, even realistic... That's how you close a 10-year cinematic cycle. Infidelity and poligamy... two very different terms with mutually exclusive definitions, but that can coincide in particular situations. Let's simplify both terms. True that such serious matter shouldn't be simplified, but let's do that for allowing this review to flow. Polygamy implies having several women. It doesn't mean that you love them all, but simply that one consents having extramarital relationships. Infidelity is adultery (often used interchangeably with "unfaithfulness"), but it also involves desiring the woman/man of another man/woman. A physical act is not needed, not even establishing communication with the person. <i>"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."</i> Matthew 5:28 The prologue remains my favorite part. With (again) Rohmer's elements of using a voiceover narration, a literary tone discovering the unspoken thoughts and feelings, an impressionistic depiction of the streets of France, and an inner demon - call it impulse, fantasy, irrational behavior - that challenges the moral wall of the protagonist, we meet a man who is an admirer of the physical beauty of women. Now, before we make a moral condemnation or immediate judgment, let's look at ourselves in the mirror. I am talking especially to us men. We admire women. There are too many beautiful women in the world, and normally the women that like us are physically unpleasant. I find that hilarious, but I also see it as a sweet challenge that life puts us. The most beautiful women normally could live without our existence, they don't even notice it. Still, like dumb lambs, we run to them. What I always found striking in Rohmer's psychological realism was how truthful it was, and how directly it was stated. People thinking about his subject matter will immediately understand him. I had that impact particularly with his last four moral tales (3, 4, 5 and 6), which were delivered with more introspectiveness and a credibility as high as a radiograph. Regarding this, there is one phrase, a damn phrase told in the movie which put into words perfectly what our lustful male minds are most of the times seeking: <i><b>"I dream of a life comprised only of first loves and lasting loves.</b> [...] I dream that actually I possess them all."</i> By the time I heard this, I thought: "Jesus! That's true! That would be wonderful, to cancel the will of all women and make them yours. That would mean their emotional slavery, but as long as it satisfies my egotistical desires, then this "paradise" could be conceivable. However, there is some moral impositions by societal rules that prevent us from doing so. Oh, Frédéric, I just hope that you realize that what you want is literally impossible." Well, Rohmer, getting ahead of me, places the following phrase as the immediate subsequent dialogue: <i>"I want the impossible, I know."</i> Lol! Is Rohmer a genius or what? That's when I realized that in almost all of the moral tales, the protagonists of the stories always confessed with their own words that they were aware of the immorality of their own actions according to their own code. So there is this state of self-awareness of incalculable proportions, and still, they proceed, irrationally, to continue their actions, like bears that fall in a trap, but willingly. Certainly, this is the most introspective, realistic, honest, truthful, dissective and psychologically intelligent series of films in the history of cinema. I was floored by how this film ended not only the preceding 94 minutes, but the whole array of characters we witnessed struggling against their nature for sticking to their own principles, failing miserably in the process and not regretting it too much. That's us... This kind of films makes me want to be truthful and loyal to my beautiful woman, whom I hope is OK right now. I want her to be happy with me, and I want her wanting to be the mother of my future children, if God allows. <i>"Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?"</i> Proverbs 5: 15-20 84/100
  Edgar C Super Reviewer

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