Close Up

31 August 2018: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend

my-girlfriends-boyfriend-eric-rohmer.jpg

My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend
Éric Rohmer
1987 | 102 min | Colour | Digital
French with English subtitles

The most delightful chapter in Rohmer’s Comedies and Proverbs cycle is also the last, bringing the acclaimed series to a close with a playful dose of jeu d’esprit that would surely make the French filmmaker’s idol, Hollywood screwball-comedy king Howard Hawks, proud. Set in the insular, ultra-modern Paris suburb of Cergy-Pontoise, this cool, clever comedy of manners concerns a group of young, amorously-obedient professionals who harbour mismatched emotions for each other’s significant others. “My friend’s friend is my friend” is the film's ironic proverb, although “All’s fair in love and war” would easily suffice. As in Full Moon in Paris, Rohmer fills the frame with vapid, postmodern décors to underscore the era’s consumerism, with each character colour-coded to match the mise-en-scène.


Part of our season on Éric Rohmer