moral tales

Jerome in Claire's Knee

One thing I have been doing to hold onto the feel of summer in the last days of my vacation is re-watch two of my favorite of Rohmer's "moral tales": Claire's Knee and Pauline at the Beach.

It is strong medicine for me, mainly because they're set near French beaches and involve people doing very little but casually drifting together and apart, sitting in gardens and airy, sparsely-furnished cottages, maybe going boating. They make summer

seem unassailable by any thoughts of whatever and wherever it is they are summering from. They're like a seasonal pornography--the objectification of summer.

Rohmer's camera work is perfect for it all, too, full of long takes, long, static shots that somehow slow your breath and that I have resolved to incoroporate more into my own life. I'm not sure if that means staring without blinking or how exactly it will work, but I think it is worth trying.

Pauline

Also exciting is that my French is improving from watching these. I still only understand about one word out of every five minutes or so, but I can read the credits in French with a passable, but still ridiculous, of course, accent, and that is a major step for me. I would give anything to be as bad at French as I am at Spanish.

Next up from Netflix: Summer Heights High, to help me return to school mode.