Eric Rohmer, one of the French New Wave film directors, is the focus of a new book by Antoine de Baecque titled Eric Rohmer: A Biography Baecque visited NYU Tisch Cinema Studies department yesterday evening to discuss the book in which he explores how Rohmer's life influenced his films. I found out that Eric Rohmer was beholden to his mother and didn't want her to know that he was a filmmaker since film, and this was a surprise to me too even though I've heard it before, get this, film at one point in the 1960s was considered a decadence.
Of course this was before iPhones. In fact, Rohmer went as far as to change his name so that his mother did find out he was a filmmaker. That's right his real name is not Eric Rohmer. Also Baecque noted that in Rohmer's films there is a struggle against temptation, a pull and tag that is reflective of Rohmer’s Catholic upbringing. Rohmer's films are saturated with biographical details and this personal essay style film shows Rohmer adhering to the mantra of that time that prophesied that the camera should be used as a writer uses a pen to express thought. I am a big fan of the filmmakers of the French New Wave and I can only hope to approach aesthetics while creating a style for my upcoming feature as they did in their films.
