Yes, I’m learning French at the moment…

So the story here seems to be quite simple (and presented by having people chatting at each other endlessly (which I like)): There’s a very “modern” mayor in this small village, and he wants to build a huge library in the village (because he’s got a vision of people leaving cities and working in the countryside when that becomes practical). But there’s a tree they may have to cut down…

That’s the tree.

Is that the same guy as in the previous movie?

I was fascinated by this movie at the start — but I’m getting pretty annoyed by all these scenes of people sitting like this and discussing er philosophy and stuff. It worked better when they were walking around outside in the pretty countryside.

And now we’re going even further into faux reportage land — we’re following this journalist who talks to the villagers about the proposed library and life in the countryside in general… It’s… just not that interesting?

OK, this guy was interesting — talking about how farming had changed and how cows that are allowed to run free in the fields are more healthy.

I’m guessing these are real interviews, sort of? I mean, she’s an actor playing a journalist, but I’m guessing that the people she’s interviewing are real people talking unscripted. (Well, most of them.)

OK, this guy is definitely an actor.

Her balloon!? I mean, I don’t know French, but ballon means ball, doesn’t it?

Yes, indeed! Man, I’ve been doing Duolingo for three months and I’m already more fluent than whoever did this translation! *gasp*

This scene is pure genius. And so funny.

I use similar glasses for drinking wine — those are Duralex Picardie, but I use the Duralex Provence ones.

This is the final movie in the Rohmer box set (which was sponsored by Agnès B).

It’s a very pretty box set, and the transfers of the movies are very well done. Or perhaps I should say “main features” — there’s so many extras on each disk — several hours of shorts, documentaries and things Rohmer did for TV, I think.

I say “I think” because I haven’t seen any of it, because… THEY ONLY PUT ENGLISH SUBTITLES ON THE MAIN oops caps lock features. Which just seems kinda perverse. I mean, it’s nice that they did do that, but it means that there’s a lot of stuff here that won’t be accessible to non-French speakers.

But! Like I said, I’m apprendring French, so perhaps I can revisit the box set in a couple of years and watch the extras…

Anyway! This movie… it’s a bit frustrating? There are scenes here that I think are absolutely wonderful, funny and amazing, and there were parts of this movie I almost gnawed my foot off out of sheer boredom. So:

L’arbre, le maire et la médiathèque. Éric Rohmer. 1993. ⚃

That’s a very grey room.

Anyway, this is my next-to-last Rohmer movie, and it’s an unusually high concept movie for Rohmer — I mean, it’s pretty explicit in the (moral) dilemma it presents, instead of having it be slowly revealed over the course of the movie.

Finally, some real literature!

That’s a very hairy coat… very nice.

Finally, some real literature.

She’s got the best taste — Moebius and Herriman.

It’s a gripping movie in many ways, but it seems so… didactic? Rohmer’s movies are usually more surprising than this: Here he sets up a situation where everybody goes “well, that’s not gonna work”, and then at the end we see that, indeed, it doesn’t work.

It’s like he’s going “see? SEE!?!?!”

Still, it’s pretty compelling.

Full Moon in Paris. Éric Rohmer. 1984. ⚄

Oh, this is one of those Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello movies — they’re allegedly what led to the downfall of Western Civilisation — because kids in the 60s watched these movies and went “fuck this shit!”

If I understand things correctly. I’ve never seen one of these movies myself.

*gasp*

That must be Frankie and Annette… the opening titles for this are kinda like a TV series, so I’m going to go ahead and guess that this is part of a series of films with the same characters?

That’s a nice radio.

Such jinx.

I watched a couple of Carry On films a few years back — they’re sex farces from the UK from the 70s — and I had no idea that these beachy movies were going to have basically the same vibe.

Bad boys!

I’m guessing this is a recurring joke? He shifted over from the sidecar to the bike to not be left behind, but HA HA

So this must be even more of a movie series than I had assumed — recurring characters and jokes, I guess?

This is very, very silly.

Wow, it’s really… er… involved? That is, some of these gags are totally incomprehensible — the movie really assumes that you’ve seem the previous movies, I think. It doesn’t explain or recap anything about anything.

I kinda like that.

Frankie Avalon seems like a total dork, but Annette Funicello kinda seems too cool to be in this kind of movie?

I quite enjoyed the first two thirds of this — it’s relentless, and the stupid gags just keep on coming. It’s not until they try to add more drama and plot that you get bored enough to start thinking about what you’re watching: This is a music movie about pretty young people on the beach — and absolutely all the actors are white. I think. At least I can’t remember even somebody in the background not being white, and that’s just a kinds disgusting statement to be making in 1965.

But the main problem is that the third act is painfully boring, of course.

Beach Blanket Bingo. William Asher. 1965. ⚂