Filmmaker, critic, and French New Wave pioneer Eric Rohmer has died at the age of 89.
Rohmer was one of the great filmmakers, and his films have been a deep source of personal and professional inspiration to me. My personal favorites are My Night at Maud's
, Autumn Tale
, and part one of Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle
. In the last of these, the climax of the film has two young women awaking at dawn to listen for "the blue hour" -- a possibly-mythical moment of absolute silence in nature. It is a moment that, for me, is the essence of Rohmer's art.
If you are a fan, I recommend Colin Crisp's superb book, Eric Rohmer: Realist and Moralist
, which, in addition to Crisp's observations, contains many passages of Rohmer talking and writing about his filmmaking practice.
