Malaspina Great Books - Eric Rohmer (1920-)

A Radical Spirituality with Universal Appeal

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The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Selections Annotated and Explained by Malaspina Great Books Web Editor Russell McNeil PhD

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius:
Selections Annotated and Explained
Russell McNeil, PhD
Editor, Malaspina Great Books

In 1862 the English literary critic and poet Matthew Arnold described Marcus Aurelius as "the most beautiful figure in history." The Stoicism of Aurelius is grounded in rationality and rests solidly on an ethical approach rooted in nature. Stoicism promises real happiness and joy in this life and a serenity that can never be soured by personal misfortune. This philosophy has universal appeal with practical implications on problems ranging from climate change and terrorism to the personal management of sickness, aging, depression and addiction. I truly believe that the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius has much to offer us now...(Click on book cover for more)

Category:

Cinema

Name:

Eric Rohmer

Birth Year:

1920

Death Year:

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Biography, Lectures, and Research Links:

Malaspina Great Books - Eric Rohmer (1920-) Biography

Blog Eric Rohmer

Eric Rohmer (born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer, April 4, 1920, Nancy, France) is a French film director. He is regarded as a key figure in the post-war New Wave cinema and is a former editor of influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinema.

Scherer fashioned his pseudonym from the names of two famous artists: director Erich von Stroheim and writer Sax Rohmer, author of the Fu Manchu series.

Rohmer was the last of the French New Wave directors to become established, working as the editor of the Cahiers du Cinema periodical from 1957 to 1963, while most of his Cahiers colleagues (among them Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut) were making their name in international cinema. His beginnings as a film director were halting, not completing his first feature Les Petits Filles Modeles (1952) and failing to make any impact with his second Le Signe Du Lion (1959).

It was with his cycle of films entitled Six Moral Tales that his career began to take off. The first, La Boulangere de Monceau lasts 20 minutes, the second 60 minutes, the rest are feature-length. Each tale follows the same basic story, inspired by F. W. Murnau's Sunrise - a man, married or otherwise committed to a woman, is tempted by a second woman, but ultimately resists the temptation. It was the third in the series (but the fourth to be filmed), Ma Nuit Chez Maud (1969) that brought international recognition and the following film, Le Genou De Claire, secured it.

Rohmer's films invariably concentrate on intelligent, articulate protagonists who nevertheless frequently fail to own up to their real desires and it is the contrast between what they say and what they do that fuels much of the drama in his films.

Following the Moral Tales, Rohmer made two period films - Die Marquise von O... (1976) from a novella by Heinrich von Kleist and Perceval le Gallois (1978), based on a 12th century manuscript by Chretien de Troyes. A highly literary man, Rohmer's films frequently refer to ideas and themes in plays and novels, such as references to Jules Verne (in The Green Ray), Shakespeare (in A Winter's Tale) and Pascal's Wager (in Ma Nuit Chez Maud).

He then embarked on a second series, the Comedies And Proverbs, each one based on a different proverb. This was followed by a third series in the 1990s: Tales Of The Four Seasons. Recently Rohmer, now well into his 80s, has turned once again to period drama with The Lady And The Duke and Triple Agent.

Selected Filmography

Six Moral Tales:
La Boulangere de Monceau (1963)
La Carriere de Suzanne (1963)
La Collectioneuse/The Collector (1967)
Ma Nuit Chez Maud/My Night at Maud's (1969) Academy Award nomination for best foreign film
Le Genou De Claire/Claire's Knee (1970)
L'Amour, L'Apres Midi/Love In the Afternoon (1971) Comedies And Proverbs:
La Femme de l'Aviateur/The Aviator's Wife (1981) Proverb: "It is impossible to think about nothing."
Le Beau mariage/A Good Marriage (1982) Proverb: "Can anyone refrain from building castles in Spain?"
Pauline a la Plage/Pauline At The Beach (1983) Proverb: "He who talks too much will hurt himself."
Nuits de la Pleine Lune/Full Moon In Paris (1984) Proverb: "He who has two women loses his soul, he who has two houses loses his mind."
Le Rayon Vert/The Green Ray/Summer (1986)
'Ami de mon Amie/My Girlfriend's Boyfriend/Boyfriends And Girlfriends (1987) Proverb: "My friends' friends are my friends."
Tales Of The Four Seasons:
Conte de Printemps/A Tale Of Springtime (1990)
Conte d'Hiver/A Winter's Tale (1992)
Conte d'Ete/A Summer's Tale (1996)
Conte d'Automne/A Tale Of Autumn (1998)
Other, non-series, films:
Die Marquise von O... (1976)
Perceval Le Gallois (1978)
4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle (1987)
L'Arbre, le maire et la mediatheque (1993)
Les Rendez-vous de Paris (1995)
L'anglaise et le duc/The Lady And The Duke(2001) an account of part of the life of Grace Elliott
Triple agent (2004) [This article in part is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Eric Rohmer.]