The previous section demonstrated that the overpowering presence of a rational speech systematically and abruptly ends all possibilities of a story in the cycle of Six contes moraux. RohmerÕs closed-ended film narratives did not go unnoticed by the critics of Cahiers du cinŽma and despite the prudence and discretion with which the editorial group of 1963 referred to the Ôchampion of Òa prose cinemaÓÕ, the Rohmerian representation of middle and upper social classes was soon to be associated with a flagrantly bourgeois way of constructing reality.92 And yet, RohmerÕs 1960s films, as well as the 1970s film adaptations, repeatedly tackled notions of desire and freedom through images that escape, only temporarily, the charactersÕ pre-established and conventional trajectories, as shown through La boulang•re de Monceau.93 In a way, RohmerÕs entire corpus of films could be regarded as the practical realisation of his early essay ÔPour un cinŽma parlantÕ (1949).
Written in Les temps modernes, this theoretical piece is RohmerÕs most effective and concise defence of speech, whose place in cinema Ð since the advent of the talkies Ð was generally subordinated to the image. Indeed, the spoken word was, according to Rohmer, overshadowed by the universality of visual language and, consequently, directors and scriptwriters thought of dialogue as this ÔŽlŽment parasite quÕil fallait avant tout tenir en lisi•reÕ.94 The era of talking pictures, Rohmer stressed, could only begin once the speech was returned its due power: ÔLÕart du rŽalisateur nÕest pas fait pour faire oublier ce que dit le personnage, mais, tout au contraire, pour nous permettre de ne perdre aucune de ses parolesÕ.95 RohmerÕs theory of speech is rooted in the principle that the essence of language is to designate the world through approximate concepts. In Rohmerian terms, language disguises the ÔtruthÕ through metaphors and directors should make use of its power of deception by accentuating the gap between nature and spoken language. In this context, it is important to note that the conflict that has opposed, since antiquity, natural laws and the
92 Hillier, Cahiers du CinŽma 1960Ð1968: New Wave, New Cinema, Re-evaluating Hollywood, 84.
93 Barthes describes the origins of bourgeois ideology as such: ÔI am not forgetting that since 1789, in France, several types of bourgeoisie have succeeded one another in power; but the same status Ð a certain regime of ownership, a certain order, a certain ideology Ð remains at a deeper levelÕ. See Barthes, ÔThe Bourgeoisie as a Joint-Stock CompanyÕ, 137.
94Ôa parasitic element that, above all, had to be kept to the sideÕ [My translation, ZTZ]. ƒric Rohmer, ÔPour un cinŽma parlantÕ, in Le gožt de la beautŽ (Paris: ƒditions de lÕƒtoile, 1984), 38.
95 ÔThe filmmakerÕs art is not to make us forget what characters say but, rather, to help us not to miss a single wordÕ [My translation, ZTZ]. Rohmer, ÔPour un cinŽma parlantÕ, 39.
humanÕs desire to tame, through words, the natural world, was RohmerÕs most striking and continuous guiding thought. In Pauline ˆ la plage, ChrŽtien de TroyesÕ initial proverb ÔQui trop parole, il se mesfaitÕ echoes one of RohmerÕs major rationale: the subjectivity with which characters tell an event never matches the objectivity of appearances.96 Thus, just as the homodiegetic monologues of Six contes moraux and the intradiegetic and polyphonic conversations of ComŽdies et proverbes contradict the charactersÕ lived realities, the dialogue (whether it is spoken or written) of Die Marquise von OÉ functions as a device of illusion and deception.
RohmerÕs opposition of nature with language originates from a theoretical concern that characterised the pre-romantic literature of Kleist. According to Sigurd Burckhardt, the anti-idealistic connotations of Die Marquise von OÉ were symptomatic of the Romantic school of philosophy, which provoked KleistÕs growing disbelief towards the notions of truth (Wahrheit) and education (Bildung): ÔIn KleistÕs texts representation becomes a rhetorical, visual figure in and of itself, incapable of representing an original, and ultimately capable of representing nothing but a deception of truth and a representation of ÒnothingÓÕ.97 Kleist negated the possibility of truth through representation by undermining the conceptual rationality of the classical sentence and introducing epistemological gaps within his sentence structure:
[É] he then addressed the lady politely in French, offered his arm and led her into the other wing of the palace which the flames had not yet reached and where, having already been stricken speechless by her ordeal she now collapsed in a dead faint. Then Ð the officer instructed the MarquiseÕs frightened servants, who presently arrived, to send for a doctor; he assured them that she would soon recover, replaced his hat and returned to the fighting.98
Through the use of a simple dash (or suspension points in some other editions), Kleist shows a whole world of possibilities and thereby interrogates the reliability of the narrative.
96 ÔA wagging tongue bites itself.Õ [My translation, ZTZ]
97 Grant Profant McAllister Jr, KleistÕs Female Leading Characters and the Subversion of Idealist Discourse (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005), 58.
98 Heinrich von Kleist, The Marquise of O. and Other Stories, trans. David Luke and Nigel Reeves (London:
Penguin Books, 1978), 70.
It is precisely through this temporal ellipsis, which occurs between the moments when the Russian officer accompanies Giulietta (aka the Marquise of O.) back to the castle and when he leaves the fainted woman with the servants, that Kleist draws the enigmatic strength of the narrative. Through this stylistic device, Kleist turns the Marquise of O. (who, in the aftermath of the war, finds herself unaccountably pregnant) into either a heroine subjected to miracles or a victim of a heinous crime. Kleist creates a tension between the epic and the sordid by focusing on the universality of the classical sentence over the subjectivity and creativity of the romantics: ÔWhat Kleist does is to call into question the easy rationality of the classical sentence, which gains its victories by keeping out unfitting details Ð the streaks of the tulip that Samuel Johnson forbade the artist to paintÕ.99 In Die Marquise von OÉ, the impact the Napoleonic conquests had on KleistÕs imagery is evident; the operational tempo to which he was accustomed whilst spending his youth at the Prussian military academy is the very motor of his syntax:
The state articulated Prussia, not as statement articulates feeling or experience, but as syntax articulates a sentence. No richly fraught words were admitted, no rhetoric of pomp and circumstance, nothing that would make the harsh voice of authority fall more melodiously, more insinuatingly and majestically on the subjectsÕ ear. In Prussia, order did not express a higher harmony beyond it: It was Ð and, by being Ð it lifted incoherence into meaning.100
According to KleistÕs contemporaneous critic, Otto Ludwig, one of the reasons that prevented him from success was the writerÕs disinclination to express passion: ÔSi la passion, chez Shakespeare se montre spirituelle, chez Kleist, cÕest la raison qui se montre ˆ nous sous forme de passionÕ.101 The propensity to exclude any form of sentimentality is, interestingly, what links KleistÕs Die Marquise von OÉ to RohmerÕs film theory.
To illustrate my thought, it is required to examine RohmerÕs understanding of universalist aesthetics in the realm of cinema. In the early 1950s, Rohmer was very critical
99 Sigurd Burckhardt, The Drama of Language. Essays on Goethe and Kleist (Maryland: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1970), 106.
100 Burckhardt, The Drama of Language. Essays on Goethe and Kleist, 102.
101 ÔIf passion, in Shakespeare, presents itself as spiritual, reason, in Kleist, is what takes the form of passionÕ [My translation, ZTZ]. Otto Ludwig quoted in Roger Ayrault, La lŽgende de Heinrich von Kleist, un po•te devant la critique (Paris: Nizet et Bastard, 1934), 21.
of the aesthetic particularisms reflected by national cinemas and praised, in turn, the classical aesthetics of Hollywood narrative films. Indeed, it is a well-known fact that Rohmer ranked directors like D.W. Griffith, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock in the same lineage as the Greco-Roman writers of antiquity.102 RohmerÕs neoclassical bias in terms of criticism and filmmaking prevailed throughout the decades, as shown in his doctoral thesis on LÕorganisation de lÕespace dans le Faust de Murnau (1977). In this academic work, Rohmer argues that MurnauÕs aesthetics reveal a certain degree of knowledge of the classical, baroque, gothic and romantic traditions.103 MurnauÕs ability to create an aesthetic that moves beyond the expressionist tendencies of national German cinema in the 1920s is, for Rohmer, the most irrevocable proof of the universalism of Faust (1926) Ð a work which he believes attained the same level of monumentality as GoetheÕs eponymous play or other compositions by Mozart and Beethoven.104 In more technical terms, the universalism Rohmer ascribes to MurnauÕs adaptation resides in the directorÕs treatment of cinematic space. According to Rohmer, Murnau managed to reveal the heroÕs spiritual life by using the entire scope of the cinematic frame as well as accentuating the exteriority and strength of his charactersÕ movements and gestures. In addition to MurnauÕs cultural knowledge, his mise-en-sc•ne conveys an acute awareness of the deictic power of photography and, thereby, strengthens the bond between the film and the play. About Faust, Rohmer declared: ÔJamais Ïuvre cinŽmatographique nÕa spŽculŽ si peu sur le hazardÕ.105 It can therefore be deduced that RohmerÕs penchant for aesthetic unity finds its antinomy in the realms of the personal, the emotional, the spontaneous, the irrational, the imaginative and the subjective Ð all of which are complementary components of the romantic identity. And yet, Rohmer adapted Kleist
102 Marco Grosoli, ÔThe Politics and Aesthetics of the Òpolitique des auteursÓÕ, Film Criticism 39, 1 (Fall 2014): 37.
103 Rohmer liked to point out MurnauÕs continuous use of natural landscapes throughout his career. In contrast with Robert Wiene or Fritz Lang, MurnauÕs cinema had a romantic quality which transcended the
expressionist style of his contemporaneous filmmakers. The influence of Caspar David FriedrichÕs paintings in the mise-en-sc•ne of Nosferatu is a famous example. For an in-depth study of Murnau and RohmerÕs use of painting in their cinematic adaptations, see Angela Dalle Vacche, Cinema and Painting. How Art is Used in Film (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996), 81Ð106 and 161Ð196. See also Laura Laufer, ÔEntretien avec ƒric Rohmer ˆ propos de MurnauÕ, lauralaufer.com (2010), Accessed November 18, 2014,
http://www.lauralaufer.com/spip/spip.php?article42
104 ƒric Rohmer, LÕorganisation de lÕespace dans le Faust de Murnau (Paris: Union GŽnŽrale dÕƒditions, 1977), 35.
105 ÔNo filmmaker has ever left so little room to chanceÕ [My translation, ZTZ]. Rohmer, LÕorganisation de lÕespace dans le Faust de Murnau, 10.
in a period in which the surge of interest in romantic writers was provoked by a vivid criticism of the Goethe cult in West Germany and France.106 GoetheÕs hostility toward Kleist and known persistence in discrediting his plays and short stories was brought to the forefront through, for instance, GŸnter KunertÕs controversial ÔPamphlet fŸr K.Õ (1975) and his radio play Ein Anderer K. (1977). Kunert suggested that GoetheÕs disastrous production of KleistÕs Der zerbrochene Krug (1808) and unwillingness to contribute to his literary journal Phšbus were factors that needed to be considered when analysing the motives of KleistÕs suicide.107 In a sense, the greatness of Goethe and his alleged contempt for Kleist fed the myth of the misunderstood Prussian poet.108 Whereas RohmerÕs contemporaries saw KleistÕs profound scepticism of language as an opportunity for the exaltation of counter-discursive aesthetics, the director of Ma nuit chez Maud adopted an ascetic attitude which, I believe, moves closer to BarthesÕ interest in denotative writing: ÔOn dit quÕˆ force dÕasc•se certains bouddhistes parviennent ˆ voir tout un paysage dans une f•veÕ.109 RohmerÕs logic when adapting Die Marquise von OÉ was to preserve the unity of classical narrative cinema in order to highlight the plurality of possible interpretations implied by the Kleistian prose. From a literary perspective, Kleist evoked his doubts towards the possibility of representing knowledge by creating a narrative style that deceptively reveals the charactersÕ beliefs and, at the same time, the incongruity emanating from their system of reasoning. I would suggest that RohmerÕs literal faithfulness to KleistÕs novella succeeds in preserving the authorÕs desire to narrate a story, which, ultimately, generates a diversity of possible readings. In fact, in Die Marquise von OÉ, scenes which possess a
106 Herminghouse, ÔTrends in Literary Reception, Coming to Terms with Classicism: Goethe in GDR Literature of the 1970sÕ: 181Ð182.
107 Ibid.: 280Ð281.
108 The ease with which Goethe granted himself the power to condemn the weak through sacred and natural imagery could be associated, in the 1970s, with the authoritarian state, with Goethe almighty. See Elystan Griffiths, Political Change and Human Emancipation in the Works of Heinrich von Kleist (Rochester:
Camden house, 2005), 32.
109 ÔThere are said to be certain Buddhists whose ascetic practices enable them to see a whole landscape in a beanÕ. See Roland Barthes, Oeuvres compl•tes, vol.3: Livres, textes, entretiens 1968Ð1971 (Paris: ƒditions du Seuil, 2002), 121. Claude-Jean Philippe had already mentioned the ascetic dimension of RohmerÕs cinema in his review of La collectionneuse: ÔIl accepte de tendre au monde et aux •tres le Òpur miroirÓ de lÕobjectif.
PuretŽ esthŽtique autant que morale. Il y a dans La collectionneuse une volontŽ dÕasc•se qui appara”t plus nette encore ˆ chaque visionÕ/ ÔHe wishes to show the world and its inhabitants a ÒpureÓ and objective reflection of themselves. It is a form of aesthetic and ethical purity. There is, in La collectionneuse, a desire for asceticism that becomes more apparent each time I watch itÕ [My translation]. See Claude-Jean Philippe, ÔLes affinitŽs sŽlectivesÕ, Cahiers du cinŽma 188 (March 1967): 62.
high degree of literalness interact with images that call for the spectatorsÕ metaphorical and varied interpretations. To illustrate my thought, I will firstly enquire into RohmerÕs understanding of textual literalness.
When preparing Die Marquise von OÉ, RohmerÕs directing method consisted in giving to his German comedians a copy of KleistÕs short story. The lack of a film script adapted from the novella led the technical and artistic crew, and by extension, the spectators, to become familiar with the original text as well as to understand the artfulness of KleistÕs ambiguous sentences. Whether it is Die Marquise von OÉ or Perceval, Rohmer attached a non-negligible importance to preserving the sonority and particularisms of archaic and foreign languages, to the point where Fabrice Luchini himself created parallelisms, in his later stand-up shows, between BarthesÕ concept of the pleasure of the text and RohmerÕs directing methods.110 In this regard, de Baecque and Herpe wrote:
Un an et demi ˆ lÕavance, entre deux livraisons de pizzas, Luchini sÕexerce ˆ la diction versifiŽe, ˆ lÕŽquitation, au maniement des armes. Un an ˆ lÕavance, Rohmer supervise des rŽpŽtitions o• se met au point lÕharmonie entre les parties parlŽes, chantŽes et rŽcitatives.111
In Perceval le gallois, the spoken, sung, instrumental and recitative parts become as important as the visual and architectural medieval world. The sound becomes an autonomous space which is characterised by a meticulous attention to the neatness of the voices and sound effects as well as the uninterrupted duration of the spoken dialogues and monologues. Jean-Pierre Ruh, RohmerÕs sound operator, described the sophistication of the sound recording system in Perceval le gallois by evoking the nuances of his microphones, which were capable of suggesting the warmth and coolness of spring and winter.112 The search for a noticeable clarity and tangibility of sound, which picks up all variations of
110 Chantal Guy, ÔFabrice Luchini: Quand Robert rencontre RolandÕ, LaPresse (September 12, 2009), Accessed April 18, 2016, http://www.lapresse.ca/arts/spectacles-et-theatre/200909/12/01-901093-fabrice-luchini-quand-robert-rencontre-roland.php
111 ÔOne and a half years in advance, between two pizza deliveries, Luchini takes some elocution lessons, learns how to horse ride and to handle weapons. At least one year in advance, Rohmer supervises rehearsals which seek to establish harmony between the spoken, the sung and the recitative partsÕ [My translation, ZTZ].
De Baecque and Herpe, ƒric Rohmer: biographie, 281.
112 Jean-Pierre Ruh, ÔLe son direct a ŽtŽ une rŽvŽlationÕ, in Rohmer et les autres, ed. No‘l Herpe (Rennes:
Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2007), 208Ð209.
tones and textures contrasts with the depthless surface and abstract dimension of the dŽcors.
The interplay between sound and image therefore becomes an alienation effect.
Similarly, in Die Marquise von OÉ, the sound components function as an index of theatricality. The clarity and minimalism of a first detonation marks the end of the opening scene in which villagers, gathered in a dark and sober tavern, discuss the MarquiseÕs startling pregnancy announcement in the local newspaper. Rohmer emphasises the narrative power of sound and dialogue through a bombing noise that cuts the townsmenÕs mumbling short. There is little time for the villagersÕ mockery and speculation in RohmerÕs rendering of early nineteenth-century Northern Italy. In fact, Rohmer added Russian officers among the pubÕs clientele so as to re-establish the latent order expected from a besieged territory.
The sound of the cannon is preceded by a fade to black which acts as a flashback and situates the narrative within the temporality within which KleistÕs story takes place: ÔHere, she [the Marquise of O.] had for the next few years lived a very secluded life, devoted to art and reading, the education of her children and the care of her parents, until the Ð War suddenly filled the neighbourhood with the armed forces of almost all the powerful European states [É]Õ.113 These film editing techniques (the fade to black and the bombing sound) participate to the creation of aesthetics of tableaux vivants, whose static and geometrical dimension hardly allow space for impromptu actions. RohmerÕs geometrical arrangement of the cinematic space thus reproduces the same rigid and repressed narrative structure of the novella, and by analogy, of PrussiaÕs oppressive social order. Indeed, the sequence of the war, which, from a narrative perspective, represents the night in which the Marquise was assaulted by the Russian troop and saved by the Count F. appears as a chaotic moment within the peaceful life of the CommandantÕs family. The Marquise of O.Õs state of drowsiness following the ordeal of the enemy invasion, which is suggested through the pre-romantic imagery of FuseliÕs The Nightmare, strongly contrasts with RohmerÕs ensuing portrayal of the familyÕs return to daylight leisure activities (fig. 2.3.). Following this eventful night, Rohmer introduces film cards that reinforce the transition from the excesses of the war to the appeasement attempts brought by the occupation. The card ÔDie Familie mu§te das Kommandantenhaus rŠumen und bezog ein Haus in der StadtÕ is followed by another black board stating ÔAlles kehrte nun in die alte Ordnung der Dinge
113 Kleist, The Marquise of O. and Other Stories, 68.
zurŸckÕ.114 From a visual perspective, the sense of a re-established order is created through an emphasis on predominantly vertical, static and solid forms.115 In the case study of RohmerÕs Die Marquise von OÉ, Angela Dalle Vacche explains RohmerÕs desire to Ôreproduce the periodÕs conception of itselfÕ by comparing his mise-en-sc•ne with a wide range of paintings that must have exerted a considerable influence on the choice of camera angles, colours, lighting, costumes, props and charactersÕ movements. She states that RohmerÕs neoclassical aesthetics when representing GiuliettaÕs occupations recall the sculptural stillness of Jacques-Louis DavidÕs classical style, which portrayed the moral
zurŸckÕ.114 From a visual perspective, the sense of a re-established order is created through an emphasis on predominantly vertical, static and solid forms.115 In the case study of RohmerÕs Die Marquise von OÉ, Angela Dalle Vacche explains RohmerÕs desire to Ôreproduce the periodÕs conception of itselfÕ by comparing his mise-en-sc•ne with a wide range of paintings that must have exerted a considerable influence on the choice of camera angles, colours, lighting, costumes, props and charactersÕ movements. She states that RohmerÕs neoclassical aesthetics when representing GiuliettaÕs occupations recall the sculptural stillness of Jacques-Louis DavidÕs classical style, which portrayed the moral