The ever-reliable David Hudson tracks the Rohmer tributes at The Auteurs Daily.
I recall seeing Rohmer's last film at the Toronto Film Festival in 2007:
Eric Rohmer has made a career out of chronicling the rituals of romance (and Romanticism), from the 6th century to the present, and from his celebrated film series, Six Moral Tales (1963 - 1972), Comedies and Proverbs (1981 - 1986), and Tales of the Four Seasons (1990 - 1998). And then there are those elegantly contrived period pictures that don't fit into the series, like "Perceval," "The Marquise of O," "The Lady and the Duke" (which I haven't seen) and now "Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon" (known in English-speaking Canada as "The Romance of Astrea and Celadon").
Two of my favorite Rohmer films (perhaps my two very favorites) seem to be among his least-mentioned: "Perceval" and "Summer" (aka "Le Rayon vert") -- the former completely artificial (shot on a painted soundstage) and the latter an equally charming portrait of a romantic klutz.
"Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon" is a Rohmerian delight, another ritualized romance (highly mannered behavior, poetic language) played out in a naturalistic pastoral setting (an unblemished slice of French countryside around the River Lignon)....
(Continued here.)
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thanks so much Jim.
"Summer" is my favorite Rohmer film. Even more than most of his films, this one is interested in the moments in a human life that are seemingly insignificant.
This is very sad news. I also blogged about this the moment I heard.
http://mikesyoutalkingtome.blogspot.com/2010/01/eric-rohmer-rip.html
In Roger Ebert's remembrance of Rohmer, he notes that Rohmer can, and has been, compared to Ozu for the fact that he makes the same film over and over, but with each one having its own individuality. I'd never linked Rohmer to Ozu before, but I can see it. Directors who do this sort of thing are a real treasure to explore. The body of work that Rohmer has left us, like Ozu's, can be seen as a map to his mind, replaying, modifying, and qualifying similar themes over and over. I have only seen the Six Moral Tales series, and a couple of the Four Seasons titles, with "Claire's Knee" being my favorite so far. That film, with its playful story and vibrant, yet somehow restrained color palate was almost so sweet that one could forget that there was a moral lesson in it. I look forward to exploring further.
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