It’s a good moment for the old lions of the French New Wave in film. Instead of being politely put out to pasture, they’re still coming up with offbeat new pictures: earlier this year we saw Jacques Rivette’s “Duchess of Langeais” and Claude Chabrol’s “A Girl Cut in Two.”
Eric Rohmer, now 88, is not about to be left out. His latest film, “The Romance of Astrea and Celadon,” could be his last, or so he has hinted. But don’t count him out just yet.
Rohmer has spent most of his career chronicling the contemporary manners and morals of his era (including such classics as “My Night at Maud’s” and “Pauline at the Beach”). But once in a while he ranges far afield for truly odd material.
Such is the case here. “The Romance of Astrea and Celadon” is based on a 17th-century book by Honore d’Urfe, which is set in the 5th century. It’s all about young lovers in a forest setting, surrounded by druids and nymphs and hobbits.
OK, there aren’t any hobbits, I made that up. But the setting is almost as unlikely as a Tolkien fantasy.
Yet Rohmer takes an inspired approach: He looks at his romance in a plain, unadorned way, as though it were really taking place and somebody happened to catch it on a 5th-century movie camera.
In the opening scenes, we meet the title characters: Astrea (Stephanie Crayencour) is a pretty young thing who doubts the fidelity of her beloved, Celadon (Andy Gillet). Heartbroken, Celadon instantly declares he will drown himself — as people are wont to do in stories such as this.
Fate intervenes, and Celadon washes ashore downriver, to be cared for by a trio of fetching woodland nymphs. As fairy-like as they might be, their desires are suspiciously earthly.
The story becomes a tale of disguise and cross-dressing; it plays like one of those original texts that Shakespeare used as a basis for devising plots. It even has a Shakespearean clown in the form of a poetical hedonist, who charmingly ridicules the serious ardor of the lovers.
The movie is full of running rivers and birdsong and pastoral settings, and its central characters are steadfast, and maybe a little foolish, in their pursuit of love. Rohmer treats the whole thing with utter simplicity, but his wisdom is there in every frame. I hope this isn’t his last film — at 88, he seems quite youthful.
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