Bores : take 2.

"Ma nuit chez Maud" (" My night at Maud's " - 1969) : Jean-Louis Trintignant, a catholic bachelor, and Françoise Fabian, a divorced free spirit spend the night together ; they talk, we sleep. Truly, the film would have been worse if they had traded intellectual orgasms for carnal knowledge.

"Le genou de Claire" (" Claire's knee " - 1970) : a bearded Jean-Claude Brialy is fascinated, with good reason, by a teenager's knee ; when the audience has given up on him and the film, he suddenly spurs himself to action and fondles Claire's knee. Both a happy end and a thriller, Rohmer's way. Film may also be considered French answer to Kubrick's "Lolita". Laurence de Monaghan' s beautiful name and knee were never to return to the silver screen.

" Ma nuit chez Maud ", " Le genou de Claire ", 1969, 1970 : a well-timed one-two punch to the audience patience. But there shall be no mistake : where Resnais is the master of hard-core, oppressive boredom, Rohmer applies a softer touch.

With Rohmer, boredom is educated and well-behaved, mostly gentle and lighthearted. It does not provoke you like Godard's or threatens to murder you like Resnais's. It does not leave you steaming with anger or crippled for life ; enjoyed with moderation, it is mostly harmless and without after effects.

Rohmer boredom is intimate and lowkey. It may be shared like a good joke ; you may doze peacefullly through it : Rohmer characters talk a lot, but rarely scream.
To your last day, any casual mention of " Hiroshima, mon amour " will have you simmering with hate ; a few days after watching a Rohmer film, you will agree with a smile that it could have been worse.

And you will be right : quite a few Rohmer films fail to achieve the excellence in dullness of " Ma nuit chez Maud " or " Le genou de Claire " ; and even when their dullness reaches heights that leave you dizzy, they display a quality seldom seen among boring films : they are short, rarely more than ninety minutes ; two would easily fit in many a deadly Japanese or Swedish masterpiece.