NYFF. The Romance of Astrée and Céladon.

"Although Eric Rohmer's fresh, unadorned style rarely sits heavily on his films, The Romance of Astrée and Céladon, his adaptation of 17th century writer Honoré d'Urfé's 5th century fable of affronted love, not only features an usual absence of intellectual banter, but is more importantly the lightest, silliest the director has been in ages," writes Daniel Kasman. "These are not pejorative descriptions—the film's wholesome delight in d'Urfé's modest whimsy amongst the 5th century Gauls of druids, nymphs and many amorous declarations of assured sincerity and flighty infidelity, Rohmer's sweet, unexpected eroticism, and the film's gentle spirit simply make a work that is light, lovely, and strange."

At Not Coming to a Theater Near You, Leo Goldsmith finds the resolution of the film its "most surprising (and for Rohmer, innovative) element: a quite decisively and unreservedly happy ending. It is both tidy and witty in a manner reminiscent of Shakespeare's comedies, and in comparison to the searching, equivocal, ever-questioning endings of Rohmer's other films, it has a sense of finality that seems unusual. It is, for Astrea and Celadon, a new beginning, attended by all of the hope and searching and uncertainty of love that we expect from Rohmer, but as the ending of a film and a career, it is final all the same."

Earlier: Reviews Venice and Toronto.

Posted by dwhudson at October 14, 2007 12:52 PM