Les Nuits de la pleine lune

Les Nuits de la pleine lune(Full moon in Paris)(1984, Eric Rohmer)

It was a cold and snowy night when I went with my friends to see Eric Rohmer's film in Cinémathèque Quebecoise in Montreal. While I was watching the film, I remembered the book that I read in French a long time ago in Toronto. Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol's book on Hitchcock seems to verge on a moralistic argument in a midst of a humanist discourse. Rohmer's desire to offer a moral interpretation of Hitchcock's works does not differ from what the audience can detect in his film, Full Moon in Paris. One of the fascinations of the film that surfaces easily is the ambiguity of the narrative that can be interpreted as Louise's (Pascale Ogier) punishment or her liberation from the ruined relationship. The point is that the film is lecturing on the moral uncertainty of the couple's relationship. Regarding Rohmer's ethical interpretation of the world, he offers a comprehensive account of how this moral corruption relates to the different characteristics of living in Paris and its suburbs. Although one can realize that Rohmer's film essentially begins and ends in the suburbs, the idea of the female protagonist's liberation from this atmosphere of entrapment weakens the intensity of her punishment for her immoral choices. During the screening of the film, while becoming acquainted with the female protagonist, the audience tries successfully to cope with her disappointments about the consequences of her choices. Her return to Octave (Fabrice Lucini) at the end of the film makes us believe that the last choice is not different from the other ones though it seems to be the best.
Review: By Morad Sadeghi