Film Review: Claire's Knee

CLAIRE'S KNEE (Eric Rohmer, 1970)
In French, with English subtitles

A scene from Claire's Knee (1970)

At a point more than half of the movie, I noticed that the film had strayed away from its plot (or, at least from the plot I perceived that film had). It became, I realized, a character study. When I initially thought the film was about some middle-aged man's obsession to touch a teenage girl's knee, I was excited on how the director could sustain the viewer's interest on what seemed to be an uninteresting plot. But, it was not at all about that.

One summer Jerome returns to where he grew up, a lakeside estate at the border of France and Switzerland, to sell some properties. He has decided to live for good in Sweden after he marries, in the end of that summer, Lucinda, his on-and-off lover for five years. He has also made the visit an opportunity to reflect before the marriage. In the lakeside estate, he runs into Aurora, a novelist, who, at some point, he was in love with. They have remained very close friends to the point one can mistake them for lovers. In relation to what Aurora has been writing or plans to write, they dare to execute an experiment, Jerome being the guinea pig: Jerome, while remaining faithful to Lucinda, will 'flirt' with a teenager (Laura) who has a crush on him, and then later with Laura's sister Claire. Jerome will recount the experience or encounter to Aurora. Aurore will make Jerome's experience a possible inspiration to her new novel. 

The result is an interesting character study. Moral issues, subtle or obvious, indeed arise.. This is a perfect storyline for a novel. I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Woody Allen films. I have to mention Woody Allen because, like many of his movies, the strength of this film (Claire's Knee) is in the dialogs.

Rating: 4.0/4.0