La Collectionneuse (1967)
Directed by: Éric
Rohmer.
Written by: Patrick
Bauchau and Haydée Politoff and Daniel Pommereulle and Éric Rohmer.
Starring: Patrick Bauchau (Adrien), Haydée
Politoff (Haydée), Daniel Pommereulle (Daniel), Alain Jouffroy (Writer), Mijanou
Bardot (Carole), Annik Morice (Carole's girlfriend), Dennis Berry (Charlie).
La
Collectionneuse was the first feature in Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales –
following shorts The Bakery Girl of Manceau and Suzanne’s Career both made in
1963, although it is referred to by Rohmer as the fourth in the series, after
My Night at Maud’s made two years later (why? I have no idea – you’d have to
ask him, perhaps it’s because the “first” three are in black and white, and the
final three in color). It follows a pattern that is well known by now – if
you’ve seen the films, or been following along in my series of reviews on them.
Once again, it focuses on a man – in this case, Adrien (Patrick Bachau), an art
dealer who wants to open a gallery, who is involved with Carole (Mijanou
Bardot) – who will be spending July in London. She invites him along, but he
doesn’t want to go – he has plans to lounge around a beach house on the French
Rivera for a month, and doing as little as possible. As is always the case in
these Six Moral Tales, the girl our “hero” is involved with at the beginning,
will essentially disappear for most of the narrative – replaced by a different
girl who he will be drawn to, and talk endlessly to and about – mostly
involving sex, without ever having sex with them – and then returning to the
safety of the relationship we saw at the beginning. The outline is the same,
the specifics are different.
Adrien
narrates the movie – almost as incessantly as the male protagonists of The
Bakery Girl of Monceau and Suzanne’s Career do. The entire movie is his point
of view, and he narrates all the action. He arrives at the beach house, where
his friend Daniel (Daniel Pommereulle) is already staying – Adrien would prefer
to be alone, but Daniel is okay. What he is less happy about is that the owner
of the house has also allowed a young woman – Haydee (Haydee Politoff) to stay
there as well. The men are about 30, Haydee is 20 – and is about the only thing
the two men talk about, despite the fact they both claim to have no interest in
her. She leaves the house nearly every night – jumping into a different car,
with a different young man every night, and coming home the next morning,
sometimes in the same car with the same boy, sometimes not. The two men cruelly
refer to her as a “Collector” – in this case, of men. They assume she sleeps
with all these men, and will eventually set their sights on one or both of
them. Adrien doesn’t want the “distraction” of Haydee, and tries to maneuver
Haydee and Daniel together. Daniel tries a counter offensive, but none too
effectively.
Because
the narration, we know everything that Adrien is thinking throughout La
Collectionneuse – or at least what he says he is thinking. Because, no matter
how much he says he wishes Haydee would go away, he finds it impossible to
ignore her – impossible to just leave her alone and go about his nothing. We don’t
know what Daniel is thinking – but we get the impression he isn’t thinking
much. He doesn’t do anything more than sit around, drink and smoke – and he
doesn’t have much to say. Haydee is the fascinating one – and like most Rohmer
women in these movies, she is unknowable. She keeps her cards close to her
vest. She plays along with Adrien and his games – even going along when he
essentially offers her to older man, a collector of a different sort. But
there, like in other situations, she doesn’t do precisely what you expect.
La
Collectionneuse is a film that is dripping with sensuality, and yet contains
only the briefest shot of sex – early in the film. Like the other films, there
is a lot of talk about sex, around sex, but not much actual sex. These are
apparently moral tales, but just what the moral is, and whether it actually is
moral, is not always clear. Here, it seems like Adrien enjoys playing the games
he is playing with Daniel – and especially Haydee – throughout. But at some
point, the game isn’t fun anymore – perhaps he senses he has lost it, and
doesn’t quite understand how. And so, he will leave the French Rivera, and
return to his old, safer life – leaving behind this complicated, unknowable
girl behind. But he won’t forget her.
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