André Aciman at LitHub:
Rohmer’s world is real enough, but those he portrays are always somehow detached and distanced from day-to-day concerns. Most, but not all, do not have monetary or professional cares. They are well-established and anything that might have troubled them turns out to be incidental, except, perhaps, for their quixotic drives. We get the overall ambiance of their lives but we never get their lived-in, domestic lives. The same holds true of the towns or cities they inhabit. We get the pervasive ambiance of the setting, but the place itself is seldom more than a backdrop.
In Paris, people take trains, run into each other, walk along parks, ride buses, enter or leave buildings, sit in cafés, buy things, and lead thoroughly uneventful lives, but nothing external impinges on them. In Élisabeth, people drive cars, ride bicycles, and nearly get into collisions or bicycle accidents; and because of the heat, they may even collapse momentarily. But as in so many of Rohmer’s films, his characters are young and on holiday, free to enjoy the beach or the countryside.
more here.
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