Venice. Les Amours D'Astree et de Celadon.

"The moral of Eric Rohmer's latest (perhaps last) film is fidelity to a premise, no matter how far-fetched," writes Ronnie Scheib, reviewing Les Amours D'Astree et de Celadon (The Romance of Astrea and Celadon) for Variety.

"Those viewers girded to persevere through his reconstruction of Honore d'Urfe's 17th-century pastoral novel of fifth-century Gaul - where shepherds, nymphs and druids flit through nondescript patches of nature discoursing on courtly love - will be richly rewarded as pic blossoms into relaxed sensuality and humor.... Until Celadon appears in drag, pic presents some rough going.... But pic's fantastic third act more than makes up for such occasional slogging."

Updated through 9/6.

"There are two Eric Rohmers," writes Jonathan Romney in Screen Daily. "The more popular is the detached comic observer of modern emotional dilemmas, the maker of the Moral Comedies and Four Seasons series. The other is a sometimes forbidding experimental contriver of historical and literary dramas, such as Perceval le Gallois, La Marquise d'O and The Lady and the Duke. Rohmer's new feature belongs in the latter camp and shows the veteran taking a perversely abstruse stance that may mystify even his hardcore admirers."

Update, 9/6: "Eric Rohmer is a filmmaker of distinction and no doubt Honore d'Urfe is a writer worthy of respect, but it's difficult to view the French director's irony-free adaptation of the fairy tale The Romance of Astrea and Celadon without imaging what fun Kenneth Williams and the rest of the Carry On gang would have had with it," suggests Ray Bennett in the Hollywood Reporter.

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Covering the coverage: Venice 07. Index.

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Posted by dwhudson at September 5, 2007 11:56 AM