The word moral comes from the Latin word moralis meaning "proper behaviour of a person in society". The problem comes with the subjectivity of the word proper. Rohmer in his six moral tales surely shows us that problem. There are very few things in our world that are universally morally reprehensible. Rohmer in his six moral tales walks the thin line between right and wrong. Rohmer has a poetic way of displaying the moral spectrum without being judgemental. That job is of the audience. The French milieu seems the best place to deconstruct subtle aspects of morality in relationships, a conversation much needed in today's day and age. Rohmer in one of his interviews says the theme which is the same in all movies was not intentional. In his own words, "A boy while pursuing one girl meets another girl, spends the film with that girl, only to realise at the end he wants to be with the first girl."
Some of us may be tempted to say that this theme is the hotbed of toxicity and gaslighting and thus there is a feeble chance of understanding morality in such scenarios. In the age of metoo, it is becoming more and more important to define a lot of ideas around sexuality. The utterly reprehensible acts are easy to denounce, but the problem comes with smaller issues. Woody Allen (quoting him despite the irony) once infamously said, "The heart wants what it wants". Rohmer's moral tales are about this and more. He clearly shows the heart never knows what it wants. The flow of oxytocin is never streamlined!
Rohmer's characters are a study in dichotomy. Except for the two men in La Collectionneuse (The Collector) and Guillaume in Suzanne's career, none of them can be cast into the mould of unidimensionality. Rohmer's women are mostly adorable characters. The character of Maud in My Night at Maud's is one of the best-written characters of French New Wave. In the movie, which is probably the most known movie among these six, Maud constantly taunts the protagonist's holier than thou approach. During their nightly conversation, Jean Louis says that he is over his Casanova days and those womanising days don't contradict his Christianity. Maud has the habit of sleeping naked and when she asks him to lie beside her he denies only to finally sleep over the blanket when he is cold. In the early hours, Maud puts her arms around Jean Louis in her sleep. He then starts kissing her, Maud leaves the bed, he insists, Maud says, "I like men who know what they want". Moments like these make Rohmer so profound.
Another moment in Suzanne's Career comes to mind. The movie is about a college student having mixed emotions about his friend's girlfriend Suzanne. Since his womaniser friend is rude towards Suzanne he feels a certain pity. At the end of the movie, Suzanne is with another guy enjoying her happiness. The movie ends with this line from the protagonist, "By depriving me of my right to pity her, she had the ultimate revenge." Rohmer had a knack of showing how we men despite all our games fall short when women are just purely honest.
The hexology (I am not sure if such a term exists) ends with Love (Chloe) in the afternoon. In some ways, it is the most profound and cathartic film of all. I won't spoil the ending of this movie. It surely is one of the most cinematic moments ever made. In this moment of catharsis, Rohmer finally submits to the higher morality of love, affection, and purity. I will finish with a moment from this scene. which may take days to understand. When the protagonist returns to his wife he says, "I am intimidated by you because I love you."
I don't know if I will ever say that to a woman, but this is surely something that can be said to French New Wave movement.
