La Boulangère de Monceau (1963)
Directed by Eric Rohmer

Film Review

The first of Eric Rohmer's Six contes moraux provides an engaging portrait of male indecision and illustrates perhaps more clearly than in the other five films Rohmer's premise for the series.

The central character in this film has to make the choice between waiting for the woman he knows he is destined for but whom he has temporarily lost sight of and making an immediate conquest of the earthy baker's girl.  The conflict, as in the other films in the series, is one of spirit versus flesh.  Because Rohmer is an optimist and has such great faith in human nature, the spirit invariably wins through in the end.   However, this outcome never appears certain and the hero in his films, who is in some measure a reflection of ourselves, always appears vulnerable and corruptible to the temptation he finds in his path.

La Boulangère de Monceau is noticeably different to the other five Moral Tales.  It is by far the least ambitious and most experimental of the films.  Owing to lack of funds, Rohmer was forced to make it (along with its successor La Carrière de Suzanne) using 16 mm film (as a result to the surviving print is of poor quality), and it was just over 20 minutes in length.

The film's lead character was played by Barbet Schroeder, who is better known as a director/producer, and who produced this and many of Rohmer's early films (including the entire Moral Tales series).  Curiously, in this film Schroeder is dubbed with the voice of Bertrand Tarvernier, who would himself go on to become a successful film director.

Film Synopsis

A young man studying in Paris is drawn to an attractive young woman he sees every day in the street, but he does not have the courage to speak to her.   When he finally decides to accost her, he is unable to meet her by chance, so he decides to spend some time every day waiting in the street for her.  As he waits, he visits a baker's shop to buy some pastries.  As he carries on this bizarre ritual for several weeks, he gets to know the young baker's girl who serves him every day...