My Girlfriend's Boyfriend Details

a french plesanterie

I saw that film in the cinema 10 years ago and now I've seen it again on DVD. Things have changed on that time. Characters in that film have that late eighties early ninenties dress sense that now we may find slightly ridiculous. The film, though, has not aged: the plot is a marvel of understatment, of subtlelty, of non-spoken emotional turmoils and, at the end, of a radiant confidence on the goodness of being alive.

[Highly rated reviewer]

He loves me, he loves me not?

This is from Rohmer's comedies and proverbs series and takes us into the territory of the way relationships often develop from a narrow spectrum of mutual friends and acquaintances. Rohmer has restricted his camera's gaze to a new town outside Paris and the rather stifling atmosphere of that kind of living and working environment. For me, not one of his best films. One can admire the well integrated story and the visual style but the whole thing is a bit insubstantial and weighed down with lots of 20 something concerns which are not very interesting. There is a sameness about the characters that seems to imprison them. This may well have been Rohmer's intention; the trouble is that it is not very substantial fare over the length of a feature film. Or perhaps it is the acting that is just a little below his usual standard. Still worth a look for fans of Rohmer and the film may look better in another 10 years when late 1980's fashions may look more charming than they do today.