If you look closely at the screen, and go past the bucolic setting that Eric Rohmer has painted as if he were creating his own calendar for the year, there is an ugly perversion lurking just behind these bright, sunny colors, and a wolf walks around in sheep's clothing egged on by a wicked witch. LA GENOU DE CLAIRE (CLAIRE'S KNEE) is extremely, astoundingly deceptive as it's frank in exposing the corrupt beast at the center of this story. Jerome is a diplomat set to marry his fiancée Lucinda out of duty, and is staying at a guest house in the town where he used to live. There he meets authoress Aurora who is none too discreet to mention that the landlady's sixteen-year old daughter, Laura, has the hots for him. Aurora even encourages him to make a pass at her, which he does... while Laura proves she has a strong intellect that makes her much older than her age would imply. Jerome and Laura initiate a series of conversations that bring them near sex on a high hill, and despite the age difference, Eric Rohmer and Nestor Almendros' camera captures an eroticism sizzling between the two actors.
Into the picture comes Claire. Claire is blond, pretty, a real looker, and has a boyfriend, Gilles. Something snaps inside Jerome: it's the moment when he acknowledges a conscious desire that was bubbling with Laura only scenes before, but because he is a diplomat, he won't consummate. His attention then falls on her exposed knee -- Claire wears a lot of miniskirts -- which he places his hand on in a casual way and therefore, gets some internal, secret gratification. Now, while this may seem rather boring for the viewer expecting to see Claire become a Lolita-like nymphet (she, in fact, is rather colorless like her pale nature, and is completely into her boyfriend, rarely having conversations with anyone else but him) or Jerome become a sex-obsessed maniac, it's interesting to just sit back and view the dynamics of a man caught in a desire so strong that the only way to act on it is to repress it and make it as passive and casual as possible with the act of placing a hand over her knee. Only later in the movie does this action generate some ugly consequences, and Jerome becomes exposed as the corroded human being that he is.
A deceptive movie, CLAIRE'S KNEE may irritate viewers because of its incessant talk, and in French, to top it off. I'll admit that while it worked in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S because the characters were likable, here, because Rohmer's cast is almost entirely of unknowns except Jean-Claude Brialy (looking much more masculine than his early Sixties heydays and playing his part with an enormous, sensual restraint), the dialogue sounds flat and somewhat mannered here and there, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rohmer was looking for a natural feel. Even so, for anyone patient to listen to these people prattle about the game of love and sex, it's worth the watch, if in fact it's not as memorable as MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S, or even in CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON, the last of his Six Moral Tales.
Into the picture comes Claire. Claire is blond, pretty, a real looker, and has a boyfriend, Gilles. Something snaps inside Jerome: it's the moment when he acknowledges a conscious desire that was bubbling with Laura only scenes before, but because he is a diplomat, he won't consummate. His attention then falls on her exposed knee -- Claire wears a lot of miniskirts -- which he places his hand on in a casual way and therefore, gets some internal, secret gratification. Now, while this may seem rather boring for the viewer expecting to see Claire become a Lolita-like nymphet (she, in fact, is rather colorless like her pale nature, and is completely into her boyfriend, rarely having conversations with anyone else but him) or Jerome become a sex-obsessed maniac, it's interesting to just sit back and view the dynamics of a man caught in a desire so strong that the only way to act on it is to repress it and make it as passive and casual as possible with the act of placing a hand over her knee. Only later in the movie does this action generate some ugly consequences, and Jerome becomes exposed as the corroded human being that he is.
A deceptive movie, CLAIRE'S KNEE may irritate viewers because of its incessant talk, and in French, to top it off. I'll admit that while it worked in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S because the characters were likable, here, because Rohmer's cast is almost entirely of unknowns except Jean-Claude Brialy (looking much more masculine than his early Sixties heydays and playing his part with an enormous, sensual restraint), the dialogue sounds flat and somewhat mannered here and there, but I wouldn't be surprised if Rohmer was looking for a natural feel. Even so, for anyone patient to listen to these people prattle about the game of love and sex, it's worth the watch, if in fact it's not as memorable as MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S, or even in CHLOE IN THE AFTERNOON, the last of his Six Moral Tales.