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Claire's Knee

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Claire's Knee
Film poster
Directed byÉric Rohmer
Written byÉric Rohmer
Produced byPierre Cottrell
Barbet Schroeder
StarringJean-Claude Brialy
Aurora Cornu
Béatrice Romand
Laurence de Monaghan
CinematographyNéstor Almendros
Edited byCécile Decugis
Distributed byLes Films du Losange (France)
Columbia Pictures (USA)
Release dates
  • 11 December 1970 (1970-12-11) (France)
  • 21 February 1971 (1971-02-21) (USA)
Running time
106 minutes
LanguageFrench
Box office638,445 admissions (France)[1]

Claire's Knee (French: Le Genou de Claire) is a 1970 French drama film directed by Éric Rohmer. It is the fifth movie in the series of the Six Moral Tales.

Plot

The story happens between 29 June and 29 July, presumably in 1970. Intertitles of the dates are displayed before the daily events are shown.

While holidaying at Lake Annecy on the eve of his wedding, career diplomat Jérôme accidentally meets up with Aurora, an old personal friend. Through Aurora, he meets Aurora's landlady, Madame Walter, and Laura, Madame Walter's youngest teenage daughter. Observant Aurora detects Laura's crush on Jérôme, and advises Jérôme of such. After Jérôme and Laura take a hike in the mountains together, she confesses that she is "a little in love with" Jérôme.

Days later (on 8 July), Laura's attractive older step-sister Claire arrives. Upon seeing Claire's knee while she is on a ladder, Jérôme finds himself longing to touch it. However, he controls his temptation. Eventually an opportunity presents itself during a boat trip on the lake when Jérôme and Claire have to seek shelter in a hut from an approaching storm. Jérôme tells Claire that he saw her boyfriend, Gilles, together with another girl, Muriel. When Claire starts to cry Jérôme consoles her by placing his hand upon Claire's knee. Jérôme later delightedly tells Aurora that it had taken him great courage to touch Claire's knee and that doing so has exorcised his desire of her from him. Gilles returns and tries to give Claire excuses as to why he was with Muriel.

Cast

Accolades

The film received the Louis Delluc Prize for Best French film of the year,[2] the 1971 Prix Méliès and the Grand Prix at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.[3] It was named Best Film by the National Society of Film Critics and Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards.

It was a huge international success. Vincent Canby called it "something close to a perfect film."[4] Cecile Mury of Télérama said "This camera outdoors gives the appearance of a small story where it goes 'nothing.' Yet these 'fragments of a love speech' make up a special study of desire, verbal pleasure, almost literary, which accompanies every inclination. A jewel."

Style

It was Rohmer's second film shot in color, with Rohmer explaining "the presence of the lake and the mountains is stronger in color than in black and white. It is a film I couldn't imagine in black and white. The color green seems to me essential in that film...This film would have no value to me in black and white."[4]

References

  1. ^ Box Office information for Jean Claude Brialy films at Box Office Story
  2. ^ Hal Erickson (2007). "Claire's Knee (1970)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
  3. ^ Ruadhán Mac Cormaic (2010-01-11). "Film-maker Rohmer dies in Paris". The Irish Times. Retrieved February 22, 2015
  4. ^ a b John Wakeman, World Film Directors, Volume 2, 1945-1985. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1988. pp. 919-928.
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