Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales (The Criterion Collection)
Audiences love or hate the films of Eric Rohmer. The magnificent Criterion set of the French director'sSix Moral Tales, his first film cycle, contains the films that first brought Rohmer to international attention--particularlyMy Night at Maud's,Claire's Knee, andLove in the Afternoon--in gorgeous film-to-dvd transfers, accompanied by a bounty of short films and other extras. Watching any of these films, even the short features that begin the series (The Bakery Girl of MonceauandSuzanne's Career), you will discover if Rohmer is for you. To some, his examinations of social mores and the psychology of love are absorbing, subtle, and sublime; to others, they're meandering, talky, and flat. But even his detractors must acknowledge that Rohmer draws out the twists of joy and anguish, brief and ephemeral, that haunt lovers as they grope towards security and happiness; and though his visual approach is rigorously simple, his images--thanks to cinematographer Nestor Almendros--are luminous.The Bakery Girl..., only 23 minutes long, has all the basic elements: A man, infatuated with one woman, flirts with another, all the while comforting himself with self-serving rationalizations and a comic lack of self-knowledge. This film's simplicity makes it more charming and satisfying than the more awkward efforts of Rohmer's next two films,Suzanne's Career(about a student who idolizes a callous older boy and only too late realizes that the girl they've been mocking may have a better grasp on life) andLa collectioneusse(about a love triangle at a countryside estate; oddly, though released two years before the next film, it's presented as the fourth in the series), though each has moments of insight and delight. The remaining three movies are masterpieces: InMy Night at Maud's, a Catholic engineer (the superb Jean-Louis Trintignant,Three Colors: Red) wrestles with his morals and his desires while spending the night with the enigmatic and alluring Maud (Francoise Fabian,5 x 2).Claire's Kneegently mocksLes Liaisons Dangereuseas a man about to be married is goaded by a female friend into pursuing an infatuation with a young nubile nymph. And the last of the series,Love in the Afternoon(also known asChloe in the Afternoon) follows a husband whose unconsummated affair with an old friend almost capsizes his happy marriage. What's most remarkable about this series is that, though each has virtually the same plot, watching all of these films in close succession only highlights their intricate differences and the complex shadings of delusion and yearning.  Rohmer's work grows more fascinating the more familiar his methods become.  Some filmgoers consider "nuance" code for "boring," but anyone who finds the collision of hearts and minds more exciting than car crashes will findSix Moral Talesrevelatory and rewarding.--Bret Fetzer