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Chloe in the Afternoon Reviews
My favorite French film. This film should be an example in film schools (especially today) on how to teach a moral lesson to your audience without being heavy handed. For a film full of passion and temptation, it paradoxically celebrated marriage and fidelity -- which I imagine would be very difficult to pull off. A masterpiece and one of my favorite romances.
Selfish and selfless acts amongst characters who think in fantasy without a thought for consequences; slowly draws you in
Very French film about mistresses and love. I don't feel compelled to see it again besides to view it as a period piece with some good fashion from the French 70s.
The last of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales finds Frederic, a young businessman, reflecting on his life after three years of marriage. His internal thoughts are narrated in voiceover. He thinks about women and his attraction to them in the context of his fidelity to his wife which he is proud to honour. They have a very young daughter as well. Frederic's life has become bourgeois but he sees himself as a sort of urban cat, prowling around in the afternoons. When an old acquaintance, Chloe, returns after a six-year absence overseas, she provokes him and challenges his views about relationships. She is rootless, flitting from job to job and from man to man, clearly independent and willful and sexy for that reason. Frederic finds himself drawn to her and they set up rendezvouses on certain afternoons, physically chaste though emotionally all over the place. Rohmer is good at getting into his male characters' psyches, undermining their confidence and throwing moral dilemmas at them. We don't really get inside the women but they are treated as mysterious and special. Rohmer's films are naturally all talk but they can be exhilarating and refreshing. We don't know where Frederic is heading but the conclusion of the film feels to be his choice, made freely and autonomously and Rohmer respects it (as he respects his audience and his vision).
The finale of Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales series is an intriguing film about love and temptation, and its strongest card is its refusal to give in to viewers' expectations.
One of Rohmer's best; a great character study.
<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
Yet another finely done, and extremely well-written, voice-over film. The movie that "I Think I Love My Wife" remade.
Powerful stuff. Probably the best movie about cheating ever.
"I'm curious about their lives, even If they teach me nothing new. What if I'd met this young woman three years ago? Would she have caught my eye? Would I have fallen in love with her, wanted to have a child with her? I love the city, the suburbs and provinces depress me. Despite the crush and the noise, I never tire of plunging into the crowd. I love the crowd as I love the sea, not to be engulfed or lost in it, but to sail on it like a solitary pirate, content to be carried by the current yet strike out on my own the moment it breaks or dissipates. Like the sea, a crowd is invigorating to my wandering mind, almost all my ideas come to me in the street."
a bit slow, but classic Rohmer
Plenty of stylistic choices that work well for Rohmer's final film in his Six Moral Tales. Chloe in the Afternoon raises many questions about getting older and the way love truly works. Can Frederic truly love two women at the same time? The prologue gives the audience plenty of time to fully understand Frederic and how he handles women, or at least that's what we think. He says that he doesn't look at women like he looks at his wife. It's like all women are an extension of his wife. He couldn't love her any more. During the prologue there's a really funny scene that shows all the women that Frederic sees during lunch falling for everything he says because of a necklace he wears. He says it's a necklace with magnetic powers. Even a guy that he talks to gives away his girlfriend because of the necklace. I've also just read an interesting little bit that these women played the main women in his previous moral tales and they even follow the characters they were, except Laura who rejects him because she has grown up. The rejection also works because his imagination can only take him so far, which leads off to him pursuing something more in reality. Just an interesting little bit I found. Anyways, Frederic seems happy with his life and his marriage, but when Chloe comes back he doesn't quite know how to react. At first he finds her to be annoying and not much different than when he last saw her. Then when she stops talking to him he becomes jealous that she treats him with detachment like he did her. They have an interesting friendship throughout the film. She comes by and sees him in the afternoons for his lunch break. They go shopping together, they talk a lot about marriage, the past, and Chloe's life now. Chloe says she couldn't ever marry a man because the love would become fake. Love never lasts. That's why she hangs around Frederic; she's waiting for him to realize that it's okay to falter because his wife probably does as well. The dialogue used her is much like the dialogue of other moral tales and Godard's films; the characters take their time getting their thoughts out without needing much of a reaction from the other character. Once they are done with their speech the other character gives theirs. It reminds me of the dialogue style in Glengarry Glen Ross. But it's hardly ever boring because what the say really strikes a point. The ending where Frederic denies Chloe because he sees himself in the mirror with his shirt over his head like when he's playing with his son is fantastic. And then him going home and him and his wife clearly understand they have some big problems they work through was the best possible ending. They never say anything to each other about other lovers, but we understand. It's time for them to talk and be more open with each other. Throughout the film Frederic never lies to Helene about what he's doing in the afternoons, he just never tells her. Perhaps that's just as damaging as a flat out lie. At least that's one of the things Rohmer's getting at in this film.
A career man (Bernard Verley), who has a wife to whom he refers as a nut, becomes prone to flirting with other women. One woman, Chloe (Zouzou), intrigues him and they begin to heavily get involved in discussions, of which he then makes excuses to both his wife, who delivers a new baby, and his employer. Eventually, this strange relationship quickly escapes. Interesting enough story helps get this usual, near-affair focused film up to speed, and that is mainly due to the very well done acting. Some situations are little interesting, but the end result is quite profound and saves "Chloe in the Afternoon," literally.
great characters and insight.
A tough study of morality and a beautiful character study.
the end was crazy. the movie definitely didn't make me feel good, but it did make me think. which automatically qualifies as a 'good movie' from my perspective. Reminded me of 'Last Night' - same idea, different approach and different outcome. I didn't connect with Chloe, probably because that's my position. and i didn't like how it looks like from the side. nonetheless, anything French is a masterpiece by definition, and although i wouldn't watch it again, - it makes me depressed, I would recommend it to others.
Colourful gray areas.