Sinister: The New Wave of Nouvelle Vague

[Youn J. Noh]

Dear Sinister,

On Mon, 1 Nov 1999, poetryplace2 wrote:
> 
> Aran-cha-cha-cha asked about the links between Nouvelle Vague cinema and
> Belle and Sebastian ... 
> understood that since attending the recording of the Black Sessions, Eric
> Rohmer has become obsessed with Isobel Campbell, saying that her
> "insouciance et vapidité écossaise sont parfait pour mes films". At one
> point, the Gallic auteur took to stalking the Jean-Seberg-de-nos-jours
> through Kelvingrove Park, and gave her poor Afghan hound, Waldo, quite a
> fright. 

I don't mean to start a dispute, and I doubt that this is important enough
to anyone to continue after this, but Eric Rohmer's films are not vapid!  
Admittedly the plots to some of them are contrived and force situations in
order to create moral dilemmas for his characters, but the choices are
important, and he works to portray each nuance of feeling honestly.  I
don't think Jean Seberg appeared in any of his films.  I think he chose
inexperienced, unknown actors (I use the masculine term to cover both
actors and actresses; I could have just as easily used 'actresses' but
that definitely would not be understood without explanation whereas this
might have been), with the exception of Jean-Louis Trintingant in "My
Night at Maud's".  (I've seen "Breathless" and maybe that was what
inspired S. Trousse's vision, but that kind of masculinity is not Rohmer's
style, not that Jean Seberg was masculine, of course, but her femininity
in the film is just the sort that would be created by an adolescent or
twentysomething boy.)

In general, what I think Eric Rohmer has in common with Belle & Sebastian
is his feminine sensibility.  I don't know if you will agree with me, but
it seems as though Stuart writes, with true understanding, songs about
women or girls.  (Just as "boys" seems preferable for his male 
"characters", "women" seems preferable for his female ones, cos they seem
old in spite of their youth.)  Or rather that he cares about, understands
relationships enough to give up the egoism of his sex.  (I don't mean to
say that men are egoists any more or less than women; it's just the
possessive used to point out that it's beyond self, that that's what's
being given up.) That last point was about Rohmer, but I think it goes for
Stuart as well.

As far as plots are concerned, I'd have to think a bit on that.  This
autumn in the states the last in Rohmer's four seasons series came out "A
Tale of Autumn".  It has a wedding in it, but no one confesses that he is
gay ... I don't know about release times elsewhere, but hopefully you will
have the chance to see it.

One last thing, Stuart's use of the 2nd person pronoun in his Guardian
piece was very nice.  To use it when you say you are waiting for someone
is especially personal.  


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