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Boyfriends and Girlfriends

Boyfriends and Girlfriends brought the “Comedies and Proverbs” series to a close with a characteristically light-handed comedy hinting at real philosophical questions. Blanche has just started her first job in the newly built Paris suburb of Cergy-Pontoise, where she befriends Léa. After Léa introduces her to her boyfriend Fabien, Blanche begins dating Alexandre, a snobbish ladies’ man. Trouble arises when Blanche realizes she’s actually in love with Fabien… From this seemingly trivial—but oh-so-relatable—material, full of theatrical misunderstandings and crying jags, Rohmer created an incisive picture of 1980s France, setting the eternal ups and downs of love against the architectural utopias of the new suburbs and the apogee of consumer society. As always with Rohmer, but perhaps accentuated by the stark setting of the new city, Boyfriends and Girlfriends is also a lesson in mise-en-scène, displaying a geometric precision in the way these relationships play out spatially. As with The Aviator’s Wife and the other “Comedies and Proverbs,” Rohmer self-produced Boyfriends and Girlfriends, shooting with a skeleton crew of six to preserve his artistic independence and to capture on screen something of the fervor and intimacy of a tiny collective enterprise. It remains an inspiration to independent filmmakers the world over.

Credits

DIRECTOR
Éric Rohmer

SCREENPLAY
Éric Rohmer

CAST
Emmanuelle Chaulet
Sophie Renoir
Anne-Laure Meury
Eric Viellard
François-Eric Gendron

Overview

DETAILS
Comedy, Drama, Romance
French
103 min.
France, 1987

DISTRIBUTOR
Metrograph Pictures

PRICE RANGE
$300-$350

AVAILABLE ON
Link available on request

VIRTUAL SCREENING PLATFORM
TBC with distributor