How many male-fantasy Lolita flicks do the French have to make before they finally tire of them? CK is like a "Barely Legal" porn film, but with no nudity and above-average dialogue. The fanciful way in which such movies are presented allows the more devious among film-buff perverts to openly enjoy teen-based male fantasies without feeling (too much) shame.
The movie starts off with three warnings.
Warning 1: Winner of some silly award.
Warning 2: Best French Film of the Year.
Warning 3: this is installment no.5 in Rohmer's pretentiously entitled "6 tales of morality" series. (Sort of like the goofy "Three Colours" series.)
You'd been warned at least.
Jerome stumbles onto an old acquaintance of his, a Romanian writer (Aurora), played by an "actress" who I couldn't at first decide was an amateur or continually high on drugs during the shoot. (Her odd behaviour is fascinating.) Jerome hasn't seen her in years, and yet he can't get his hands off her. He is constantly touching her, hugging her, stroking her hair - while he tells her of his engagement to another woman (Lucinda)! C'est la vie. That's how they do it France, I suppose. Or at least Rohmer's France. We find out that Jerome had lived in Morocco. Did he touch women like that THERE?
In this strange Rohmer-world people bump into each other often, whether they be in the Riviera or even Beirut. Either Rohmer-world has a population of only 59 people, or he is telling us something about "destiny". How profound. I'm getting the jitters already. (I always get the jitters when a deeply intellectual French director is about to reveal something amazingly new to me about the world, life, and destiny.)
"When something pleases me, I do it for pleasure", says our thoughtful knee-worshiping hero. Wow. You can't get any more perceptive than that. I'd have expected that from the Pythons, but Rohmer is full of surprises.
Speaking of unhinged French hedonism, an underage girl called Laura appears (17, but 16 here). This is a French movie, so a potential underage seduction story always lurks around every corner. Sure enough, very soon the lurid Romanian woman tells Jerome that Laura is in love with him. (Child-molesters/film-students, get ready to unzip your pants.) Just a minute after she says this, she mentions the possibility of them sleeping together. Ts ts. Won't they EVER "leave us kids alone"? Aurora even says that "there are no innocents these days", sort of trying to undermine the seriousness of this little forbidden-fruit sexual affair, and to suggest that if it happens it carries no victims in its wake. If Aurora hadn't been a writer/diplomat she's have had a perfect career as a Madame in a brothel.
Aurora pushes the idea of an affair with Laura to Jerome, justifying it by saying she needs them both "as an inspiration for her (filthy) novel". (We're lucky Aurora wasn't writing a murder mystery or she might have asked Jerome to kill someone.) Or perhaps she just wants to sneak up to the keyhole? In any case, she mentions her own multiple affairs with "very young boys". (We can only guess the age. 11?). Voila! Now Rohmer's titillation is complete; those thirsty for virgin blood can now smile!
Turns out, Aurora was right: Laura indeed has the hots for this skinny middle-aged man. Every other French movie seems to at least touch on this "forbidden" male fantasy.
"In the 6 years with Lucinda I've never tired of her," says Jerome quite seriously - yet hilariously. 6 years is hardly a "test of endurance" or compatibility when: 1) you'd cheated on your fiancée "with several affairs", 2) you "split-up with her 5-6 times", proving that perhaps you DID tire of her, as much as 5-6 times even, and 3) you spend many weeks and months separated from each other. Duh, Rohmer, duh.
Jerome actually has the cheek to suggest to Laura's mother that he cannot guarantee self-control when alone with her underage daughter Laura when he says: "I'm not so sure (about being level-headed i.e. keeping it in my pants). Perhaps you should count more on your daughter to be level-headed (i.e. keep it in her pants)."
Laura is given dialog that is absurdly adult/sophisticated for her age. Rohmer suggests that an uber-intelligent young girl such as Laura is more likely to involve herself in such a reckless older-man adventure, but in reality it's quite the opposite: dafter girls do this. Besides, ever meet a 16 year-old girl who talks like this? Rohmerian science fiction with aspirations of wisdom-drenched "art".
The 46th minute of the movie, and Claire's knee finally makes its first appearance. What can I say? It's a 15 year-old female knee, like any other. But the ideal age for French writer-directors, and Jerome later describes her bony body as HIS ideal. (She's built like a stick, what a perv he is.) And shouldn't the movie be called "Claire's Knees", plural? Women usually have two of them, and both look the same to me. At this point, I sort of half-expected Aurora to nudge Jerome into seducing Claire too. She might have become a true pimp. But there was no need; by this point Jerome had tasted blood!
The way Jerome endlessly rationalizes (through over-intellectualizing) his basic sexual urges is quite funny (no idea whether this is intentional). He keeps talking about Lucinda's perfection, how he needs no other women, and yet he chases every skirt he sees. Some people hate Rohmer's dialog, but I thought it was fascinating/amusing how this "exalted thinker" tries to justify lustful, hedonistic and decadent urges through semantic diarrhea. Sugar-coating taboo sex? Yup.
In the end, Jerome submits his daily report to Aurora of his flirting-with-teens shenanigans, actually boasting about his "courage" of having fondled a 15 year-old's knee. Hooray for French cinema.
Sle-azy.
The movie starts off with three warnings.
Warning 1: Winner of some silly award.
Warning 2: Best French Film of the Year.
Warning 3: this is installment no.5 in Rohmer's pretentiously entitled "6 tales of morality" series. (Sort of like the goofy "Three Colours" series.)
You'd been warned at least.
Jerome stumbles onto an old acquaintance of his, a Romanian writer (Aurora), played by an "actress" who I couldn't at first decide was an amateur or continually high on drugs during the shoot. (Her odd behaviour is fascinating.) Jerome hasn't seen her in years, and yet he can't get his hands off her. He is constantly touching her, hugging her, stroking her hair - while he tells her of his engagement to another woman (Lucinda)! C'est la vie. That's how they do it France, I suppose. Or at least Rohmer's France. We find out that Jerome had lived in Morocco. Did he touch women like that THERE?
In this strange Rohmer-world people bump into each other often, whether they be in the Riviera or even Beirut. Either Rohmer-world has a population of only 59 people, or he is telling us something about "destiny". How profound. I'm getting the jitters already. (I always get the jitters when a deeply intellectual French director is about to reveal something amazingly new to me about the world, life, and destiny.)
"When something pleases me, I do it for pleasure", says our thoughtful knee-worshiping hero. Wow. You can't get any more perceptive than that. I'd have expected that from the Pythons, but Rohmer is full of surprises.
Speaking of unhinged French hedonism, an underage girl called Laura appears (17, but 16 here). This is a French movie, so a potential underage seduction story always lurks around every corner. Sure enough, very soon the lurid Romanian woman tells Jerome that Laura is in love with him. (Child-molesters/film-students, get ready to unzip your pants.) Just a minute after she says this, she mentions the possibility of them sleeping together. Ts ts. Won't they EVER "leave us kids alone"? Aurora even says that "there are no innocents these days", sort of trying to undermine the seriousness of this little forbidden-fruit sexual affair, and to suggest that if it happens it carries no victims in its wake. If Aurora hadn't been a writer/diplomat she's have had a perfect career as a Madame in a brothel.
Aurora pushes the idea of an affair with Laura to Jerome, justifying it by saying she needs them both "as an inspiration for her (filthy) novel". (We're lucky Aurora wasn't writing a murder mystery or she might have asked Jerome to kill someone.) Or perhaps she just wants to sneak up to the keyhole? In any case, she mentions her own multiple affairs with "very young boys". (We can only guess the age. 11?). Voila! Now Rohmer's titillation is complete; those thirsty for virgin blood can now smile!
Turns out, Aurora was right: Laura indeed has the hots for this skinny middle-aged man. Every other French movie seems to at least touch on this "forbidden" male fantasy.
"In the 6 years with Lucinda I've never tired of her," says Jerome quite seriously - yet hilariously. 6 years is hardly a "test of endurance" or compatibility when: 1) you'd cheated on your fiancée "with several affairs", 2) you "split-up with her 5-6 times", proving that perhaps you DID tire of her, as much as 5-6 times even, and 3) you spend many weeks and months separated from each other. Duh, Rohmer, duh.
Jerome actually has the cheek to suggest to Laura's mother that he cannot guarantee self-control when alone with her underage daughter Laura when he says: "I'm not so sure (about being level-headed i.e. keeping it in my pants). Perhaps you should count more on your daughter to be level-headed (i.e. keep it in her pants)."
Laura is given dialog that is absurdly adult/sophisticated for her age. Rohmer suggests that an uber-intelligent young girl such as Laura is more likely to involve herself in such a reckless older-man adventure, but in reality it's quite the opposite: dafter girls do this. Besides, ever meet a 16 year-old girl who talks like this? Rohmerian science fiction with aspirations of wisdom-drenched "art".
The 46th minute of the movie, and Claire's knee finally makes its first appearance. What can I say? It's a 15 year-old female knee, like any other. But the ideal age for French writer-directors, and Jerome later describes her bony body as HIS ideal. (She's built like a stick, what a perv he is.) And shouldn't the movie be called "Claire's Knees", plural? Women usually have two of them, and both look the same to me. At this point, I sort of half-expected Aurora to nudge Jerome into seducing Claire too. She might have become a true pimp. But there was no need; by this point Jerome had tasted blood!
The way Jerome endlessly rationalizes (through over-intellectualizing) his basic sexual urges is quite funny (no idea whether this is intentional). He keeps talking about Lucinda's perfection, how he needs no other women, and yet he chases every skirt he sees. Some people hate Rohmer's dialog, but I thought it was fascinating/amusing how this "exalted thinker" tries to justify lustful, hedonistic and decadent urges through semantic diarrhea. Sugar-coating taboo sex? Yup.
In the end, Jerome submits his daily report to Aurora of his flirting-with-teens shenanigans, actually boasting about his "courage" of having fondled a 15 year-old's knee. Hooray for French cinema.
Sle-azy.