Claire’s Knee (1970) film notes for SAM Films

 

 

Eric Rohmer’s young women have minds of their own. Hearty and a bit world weary, they can feel they are being observed and yet they do what they want. In Rohmer’s films the young women are not made to feel ashamed, not blamed for what they wear or for what they say. 

Nothing distracts from the visuals in Claire’s Knee (1970). The sounds we hear are the sounds of what is happening, birdsong, a motor boat, a band playing at a Bastille celebration, people in conversation who entertain through talk and action. They are in nature. They wear long socks with loafers; one never knows when one wants to climb a mountain. Teenage sisters Laura (Béatrice Romand) and Claire (Laurence de Monaghan) are spending July at Lake Annecy. Their mother, Mrs. Walter (Michèle Montel) who works, leaves them in the care of Aurora (Aurora Cornu) her lodger, a writer who reads her coffee grounds. Laura is serious and bored, studious in school and inexperienced in love. Claire who lives in Paris arrives after Laura. She greets her boyfriend Gilles (Gérard Falconetti) with great affection. No one smokes in Claire’s Knee. They play tennis, have long lunches, take boat rides, go on mountain hikes. They gossip. Claire seems indifferent. No one holds her interest but Gilles who is hard bodied and shirtless at the lake. He is also unfaithful. 

Aurora brings Jérôme (Jean-Claude Brialy) to lunch with Laura and her mother. Aurora knew Jérôme in Bucharest. An attractive man soon to be married, he has a house to sell on Lake Annecy where he spent his childhood vacations. It is breezy enough in July for Jérôme to wear sweaters. He doesn’t sunbathe. His beard makes him look modest. Aurora and Jérôme once were lovers. Reunited they touch one another as they speak. Jérôme, a diplomat going grey at his temples, is the same age as Claire and Laura’s mother. Laura walks across the lawn to join them; Jérôme notices. 

Each scene in Claire’s Knee takes place in one day, the date written in blue ink on pink paper. Lake Annecy looks like a dream, snow capped mountains rising in a circle around blue water. Tuesday, June 30th, Jérôme and Aurora walk in his garden. “The garden’s gone completely wild. Something must be done,” Jérôme says. “You don’t want a Versailles here. It’s nice like this,” Aurora replies. They stop at the tennis courts which replaced Jérôme’s grandfather’s vineyard. They wear white straw hats, hers floppy his folded. Aurora takes his hand. She says in regards to Jérôme meeting Laura, “It reminds me of a novel I wanted to write but could never finish. It was about a man getting on in years, 35 or 40, a diplomat, very austere, very stern, whose conduct is above all suspicion. This gentleman watches young girls playing tennis. Of course, as the days pass, he gets ideas. One day a tennis ball falls in his garden.” Jérôme sees no reference to himself. He loves his fiance Lucinde. “Laura is in love with you,” Aurora tells him. “You mean in your novel?” he asks. “No, she told me,” Aurora says. Jérôme thinks that’s folly, “She’s a child, simple and straight-forward. That’s what’s so nice about her. Besides I can’t go around noticing every love-struck little girl. It’s your job to observe these things.” Aurora acts as a matchmaker. For her, writing is not about making things up. It’s about what she can discover. Aurora tells Jérôme, “She’s just a sweet little flirt. I know; I was one myself. She’ll pull back at the last minute.” 

They all have their summer rituals. Mrs. Walter tells Jérôme, “We’ve spent our vacations since 1945 in Brittany.” Once they rented Jérôme’s place. Laura remembers, “We ate every single pear in the garden.” Laura and Claire hiked in the mountains. Claire’s Knee feels like this is their last summer. In this way they all are susceptible to each other. Laura is in love with Jérôme and tells him. Her feelings dissipate once she has spoken. She needs nothing from Jérôme other than an experience. She leaves at the end of July for England. She is young; her interest moves from one to another. The days go by; Jérôme seems older. He is no longer at the center. Gilles and Claire pay him no attention. Friday, July 17th, Jérôme tells Aurora his affection has switched from Laura to Claire, “I’ve never pursued a girl if she wasn’t favorably disposed. With this one it’s very strange. She arouses a desire in me that’s real yet has no purpose and is all the stronger because of it. Pure desire.” Claire is seen as an object by Jérôme. She is reduced to a knee. This is not how Rohmer sees Claire or how she sees herself. Tuesday, July 28th, it rains at the lake. Jérôme and Claire who happen to be alone run for cover. Jérôme tells her he saw Gilles in town with another girl. Claire at first argues. Everyone else is an extrovert; Claire is private. It is painful for her to hear what Jérôme has to say. She sits on a stool in the shelter and cries. Jérôme puts his hand on her knee. She takes his touch as an act of consolation. He sees this in her face. 

Wednesday, July 29th, Jérôme is in his study with Aurora. This is his moral, “On the one hand I broke the spell I told you about. On the other, I’m no longer obsessed with the girl’s body. It’s as if I’d had her. I’m fulfilled. At the same time I did a good deed. I got her away from that boy for good.” Aurora says, “She’ll just end up with someone worse.” Claire will decide for herself. She sits on a bench with Gilles facing the lake. Jérôme had desired to be desired. He had wanted what he felt to be reciprocated. With Laura, for a short time it was.