Movie No. 9 (2013): LA COLLECTIONNEUSE

La Collectionneuse (1967)
Director: Eric Rohmer
Cast: Patrick Bauchau, Haydee Politoff
In French, with English subtitles

The titular character in this film is Haydee, a collector of men, so to say, because she sleeps with different men each night. But the main character is an art dealer (Adrien), who resists Haydee's seduction, trying to be loyal to his English model girl, who he claims to be his true love. With the aim of doing just nothing, Adrien spends vacation in a seaside villa in the country; he shares it with his friend (Daniel, a painter) and Haydee (a girl, unknown to them at the start of the film). 

La Collectionneuse is the fourth film in Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales, and the second film in the collection that I've seen, so far (the first being Claire's Knee, the fifth film). It is said that the Six Moral Tales are all about fragile men and the women who tempt them with each tale's denouement being inevitable as a result of the characters' actions.

Like most of Eric Rohmer's films, La Collectionneuse is talky. The dialogues in the screenplay (which are honest but, at times, sarcastic or sly or funny or witty or derisive or insightful or ...) have always been the major strength of any of his films, in addition to the landscape at the backdrop, which itself is a character.

Date seen: January 5, 2013

Rating: 4.0/4.0




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