L'Amour l'après-midi (1972)
Directed by Eric Rohmer

Film Review

Eric Rohmer brings his series of six moral tales to a close with L'Amour l'après-midi , a charming romantic comedy which is as much a conventional bourgeois satire as a characteristically Rohmeresque portrait of temptation and desire.

Somewhat lighter in tone (and also less intellectual) than the previous five tales in the Six Contes Moraux series, the sixth is also the most banal, telling a comparatively simple story of a man wondering whether or not he should extra-marital affair.  Rohmer skilfully avoids the conventional stereotypes and, thanks to sympathetic and magnificently ambiguous performances from Bernard Verley and Zouzou (who play the husband and his temptress), the film manages to be one of his most uplifting and engaging.

The most memorable part of this film is the surreal dream sequence near the start of the film, where the central character Frédéric manages to make an easy seduction of a succession of beautiful young women (including Françoise Fabian, Béatrice Romand and Marie-Christine Barrault) with the help of a flashing talisman. It's the maddest thing you'll find in any Rohmer film, but perfectly inserted into the main narrative.

Film Synopsis

Frédéric had thought that by marrying Hélène he would never again be tempted by another woman.  But after just a few years of married life the successful businessman realises he was deluding himself.  Although his feelings towards his wife have never changed, he feels increasingly hemmed in by his matrimonial vows, and in his state of self-imposed restraint he fantasises more and more about other women.  And then Chloé, a former lover, suddenly walks into his office.  After her latest relationship breakdown, it seems that Chloé is badly in need of moral support and this she believes Frédéric can provide.  Frédéric is only too pleased to act as her unpaid counsellor and he begins to behave like the typical unfaithful husband - agreeing to meet up in the afternoons in secret and lying to his wife, even though the affair, if it can be called that, remains strictly platonic.  When Chloé returns to him after a brief time in Italy Frédéric is ready to give up everything to be her lover.  Now that he finally has what he has yearned for all these years - a willing and desirable mistress - Frédéric suddenly realises what a fool he has been...