Dressed in sunflower-yellow, she rolls in the grass and passionately kisses the man she has a crush on (Boyfriend and Girlfriend, 1987). She is walking in the countryside in a blue fleece sweater, but she is not at all happy (“The Green Ray” 1986). She lounges on the beach in a red bikini and ivory bucket hat, beginning a confusingly ambiguous friendship with an observing shirtless French man (Summer Story, 1996).
This is Eric Rohmer’s summer love. Not easy, but certainly chic.
In the costume that appeared in the work of the late French film director, length in the meantime celebratedAnd, literally, the @ Instagram account continues to grow its followers.Romer FitzDebuted in May.
Rohmer’s films, made between the 1960s and 2000s, were famous for their laid-back plots. Characters fly between the French countryside, seaside and cities. They analyze their own romantic entanglements. They read Balzac. They seduce or annoy each other. And they do it in Mediterranean blue sweaters, high-waisted jeans, wavy cotton shirts, and pops of red.
“They have an atmosphere that makes you want to be in them,” @Rohmerfits creator Alexandra Tell said of the outfits. The characters “are often on vacation, so I want the atmosphere to feel like they can move freely,” she says. “His clothes are not luxurious, but he is indescribably elegant.”
The secret of such aesthetic ease may lie in Rohmer’s dedication to naturalism. Like his contemporaries Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, Rohmer, who died in 2010, started out as a film critic. Film scholar Ludovic Cortado, who teaches French cinema at New York University, said these critics-turned-writers were “extremely opposed to the artificial feeling that comes from shooting in a studio.” rice field.
As an extension of that naturalism, Cortado said, Rohmer did not employ costume designers in many of his films, instead asking the actors “to come up with some costume choices that reflected their tastes. was a great strategy to convey the appeal of the film.” Authentic feeling. ”
Its beauty is in stark contrast to movies like “Barbie” due out this month. While “Barbie” literally plays with plastic, Rohmer did the opposite. “Maybe the Barbie world is more reflective of our reality,” says Tell, but Rohmer’s naive naturalism now “feels like an escape.”
According to Cortado, the looks were carefully curated by Rohmer, but never felt forced. For example, in “Boyfriend and Girlfriend”, the marigold tank top and belt worn by Emmanuelle Chauret’s Blanche match the color of a glass of orange juice. “You can see the wrinkles in the clothes,” says Teru, a 32-year-old writer and curator’s assistant in Brooklyn. “It’s very tactile.”
The simplicity of the costumes allows the audience to focus on the characters and their relationships as they grapple with complex issues of morality and love. Rohmer’s tone can be witty and farcical, but his films are acutely tackling “the challenges of personal interaction and the awkwardness behind them”, and this dynamic is a metaphor for digital technology. Professor Cortado added that it is only rising with the advent of
In other words, Rohmer’s blend of aspiration and realism is what keeps his films and costumes fresh, Ms Tell said. His characters, like Amanda Langre’s Margot in A Summer’s Tale, wear clothes you would wear. But my style is better. They, too, have what is called a difficult situation, but with the handsome Gaspard played by Melville Poupaud against the backdrop of a grassy path.
In one scene in Green Ray, Delphine (Marie Riviere) moans about going on vacation with her family after a breakup. Delphine, who wears a bright crimson blazer, sobs and says, “I need a real vacation.” Her friend, played by Rosette, convinces her to join her on her trip to Cherbourg, promising “to have fun and meet people.” Instead, Delphine roams grumpy and lonely against the dim sun in her all-blue outfit.
