Customer Reviews

A Good Marriage

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Second of the famous " comedies and proverbs " of French director Eric Rohmer, A GOOD MARRIAGE is a less serious movie than THE AVIATOR'S WIFE, the first movie of this great artistic achievement. One smiles and laughs a lot during A GOOD MARRIAGE, and that's not so common in Rohmer's filmography !

One fine day, Sabine, a 25 years old art student, decides to get married. She is sure that she won't have any problem at all to find the right man ; she's pretty, young and smart. A handsome Parisian lawyer, played by a terrific André Dussolier, will be the chosen one. Without knowing it. One suffers (if you're a man, of course) with the poor man, absolutely not in love with Sabine, trying to escape from the charming girl's arms without hurting her.

A GOOD MARRIAGE is showing in a comic manner that will is not sufficient to obtain what one desires proving, if necessary, by treating this subject that it is definitely not a Hollywood product.

Images and sound are surprisingly good for a Winstar DVD... but extra-features are still under-average.

A DVD dedicated to bachelors.

The movie is from Rohmer series of proverbs, and it is very kind and charming. For me, it was a story of a young girl coming out of age, about a conflict between her determination to achieve a goal despite all odds by trying to manipulate others and how life unfolds to shock the her that other people's emotions are not simple matter. What I love about Rohmer's films is the kindness and warmth that radiates, although the stories are somewhat melancholic. I wish movies like this be done nowadays, too, without that garish vulgarity that blights modern cinema.
This is not for Hollywood lovers, therefore.

Eric Rohmer's second movie, A Good Marriage, is the first one I've seen, and my being a big fan of Arielle Dombasle aside, it is a very good one. Sabine (Beatrice Romand) is tired of being used and treaded on lightly by her married boyfriend, so after dumping him, she decides she is going to get married. As she explains to her artist friend Clarisse (Arielle Dombasle) she is going to get herself a husband without bedding him first and that's that. She hasn't any prospects, but Clarisse deliberately tries to push her and her cousin Edmond (Andre' Dussollier), who is a lawyer, together at a sister's wedding.

From the beginning, it is very clear that he isn't interested as he just runs out after a phone call. Clarisse insists she has recognized love at first sight and, though Sabine is cool about it, she single-mindedly and relentlessly begins to persue him, determined to make him her husband "whether he likes it or not!"

One can admire Sabine on the one hand for fearlessly going after what she wants, having decided to up her scruples and better things for herself. On the other hand, one gets annoyed at her childlike tantrum-throwing behavior, particularly at her birthday party when he shows up late. I actually felt sorry for him as she wouldn't stop calling his office, then eventually showed up there for a one-on-one in which he informs her he's written her a letter. I also took her side as he spewed off the same old excuse in subtitles: "It's not you, it's me." A man who avoids you and sends you a letter is pointedly telling you that it's you, and saying that it's him is a paltry attempt to be kind.

I do like how she is able to pick herself up and start all over again, realizing her mistake, and I love the humorous ray of hope at the end, which I won't give away. Sabine is a typical young woman learning all about herself and relating to others around her, and Clarisse is her eternally optimistic, romantic best friend. Their relationship and Sabine's with her family say much about her personality and attitude. This is a meaningful, yet fun and enjoyable movie that teaches important lessons about your will and others' being complete opposites. A good, solid story free of the garbage that permeates too many Hollywood productions. This one is clean and highly enjoyable.

This is the second movie in Rohmer's series "Comedies and Proverbs." A young woman, Sabine (played by Beatrice Romand) gets fed up with having affairs with married men and decides to get married herself. She picks out a lawyer, Edmond (Andre Dussollier) and goes after him straightaway - even though he's not the least bit interested in her. He tries to be polite, but she just won't get the message, she keeps coming on. Finally, in a rather disappointing and far-fetched scene in Edmond's office, he finally gets his point across that he's not interested (his reasons seem contrived and dumb - a real let down). Up to that point, however, the movie is quite good, though of all Rohmer's movies this could be the least substantial, his closest work to a piece of fluff.

Eric Rohmer's main subject in his filmmaking is a relatively narrow one in the sense that he tends to focus nearly always on young, middle or upper-middle class French people caught in the travails of finding or losing love; though there are obviously infinite variations on such a subject, still it's not hard to talk about a "typical" Rohmer film in a way that wouldn't have the same meaning if referring to his contemporaries Godard or Rivette, for example. I suspect that most viewers identify with his great theme and appreciate his way with it - or don't - and it would seem that for most, Rohmer's films more than almost any director's are going to be consistently of the same quality. The differences, then, lie in how much one cares about or is interested in the particular protagonists, and how well thought-out the storylines are. LE BEAU MARIAGE, for me, approaches brilliance.

As always, it's a fairly simple story given complexity by it's main character's actions and our gradually deeper understanding of her personality. She is Sabine (Béatrice Romand), a 25-year-old art student also working in a small antique store to pay the bills, who is in the habit of dating married men, and at the beginning of the film she breaks up with her latest conquest Simon (Féodor Atkine), an artist with a studio-cum-hideaway in Paris. He irritates her by taking a phone call from his wife while they are making love, and while we identify with her annoyance, she seems to lash out pretty hard right away - an impulse, agressive side is soon revealed. Back in her mother's house in Le Mans, she soon takes her impulsiveness further, telling her best friend Clarisse (Arielle Dombasle) that she's getting married (without yet having an idea to whom), and then latching onto Clarisse's decade-older cousin Edmond (André Dussollier) who fulfills her requirement of having a good job and living in Paris. He seems to like her too, at first, but it's not hard to imagine that her pushiness might have consequences that she doesn't expect, especially after she takes him to buy an antique piece of porcelain that her boss was hoping to acquire ...

This is a beautifully put together story of a headstrong young woman, a type we've all known (or been) probably, whether male or female: often soliciting advice, but usually ignoring it, rushing into things that she doesn't really understand, grabbing at straws while ignoring the fact that the haystack is falling away from her. Numerous members of her family and friends let her know early on that choosing to get married just for the sake of getting married isn't of much value - it's fascinating to notice that this modern "liberated" young woman, willing to push herself forward sexually, confident in her seductive powers, is yet so old-fashioned as to want a man to take care of her, and to go to church to pray for it. There are many such ironic moments in the film, and Rohmer and Romand wisely make Sabine irritating enough that we are amused when she falls flat - but human and endearing enough at the same time that we want her to learn, not to be punished or truly hurt.

The cast is exemplary here; Romand is, as I said, both charming and winsome, and irritating and pushy - I think she may be one of the most well fleshed-out of all of Rohmer's female protagonists. Dombasle's pale, ethereal beauty and softer disposition offer nice contrasts to her best friend's fire, and as different as they are it's not hard to really see how they could be friends; and Dussollier manages the difficult task of being an obviously wrong object of desire who goes from sympathetic to spineless to exasperated, all in the same short and brilliant climactic scene. The secondary cast are all fine as well, all more or less tolerant and patient with Sabine - until they can't be anymore, which happens for almost all of them. I liked this on the whole a bit more than Full Moon in Paris from a couple of years later with which it shares many strong similarities; it's also a little bit more visually interesting, with a wider range of locations and sets.

All in all, this is one of my favorite Rohmer films at this point. I have the VHS; it's apparently OP in all formats in the USA at this time, which is a shame. Hopefully Criterion - or someone - will put together a set of all the "Comedies and Proverbs" before too long. I'll be among the first in line for it.

Eric Rohmer's film stars Beatrice Romand who impulsively decides that a man she barely knows would make an ideal husband. She throws herself body and soul into his conquest, leaving her old boy friend in the dust. To say she is single minded in pursuit of this Parisian lawyer is a vast understatement. Virtually everyone will find themselves thanking the powers that be that they are not the Parisian lawyer. I am sure most men dread finding themselves in this quandary. The natural reaction is to think of her as a fruitcake and to have very little sympathy for her, especially if you are a man. Then she does something that makes this movie extraordinary. She laughs at herself. She sees the utter ludicrousness of what she is doing and just laughs at herself. This may seem like a simple thing but I can't think of another film which has done something so spectacular. This after all is what separates the ordinary person who wants to fall in love, get married, have a family, and grow old together from a crazed stalker. Almost every other film maker would have chosen to make this a crazed stalker film. But Eric Rohmer instead gave us a nuanced, complex view of ordinary people who often make fools of themselves over their personal lives. Yet most of them have developed senses of humor as part of their adaptation skills so they can dust themselves off and go on. This is real life.

Anyone who watches an Eric Rohmer film and is not entranced must be tired of life. His movies explore, in a way that is unique in the cinema, the myriad relations between people in and out of relationships.

Could this movie have been made in any country other than France? No, it could not! Is this a good thing? Well, there have been quite a few nearly unwatchable French films, particularly in the last 15 years, but I defy anyone who has even the smallest romantic bone in their body to watch this and not be uplifted, moved, charmed.