Rohmer’s second film in his “Six Moral Tales”. A film that focuses on young men using a woman’s emotions and taking advantage of her (via her spending money on them), but when one of the guys starts to feel guilty, he must make the moral decision to do what is right. But does he make the right decision?
Image courtesy of All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: Suzanne’s Career – The Criterion Collection #344 (part of Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales box set)
DURATION: 55 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, Monaural in French with Optional English Subtitles, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio
COMPANY: The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: 2006
Written and Directed by Eric Rohmer
Produced by Barbet Schroeder
Cinematography by Daniel Lacambre
Edited by Jackie Raynal, Eric Rohmer
Starring:
Catherine See as Suzanne
Philippe Beuzen as Bertrand
Christian Charriere as Guillaume
Diane Wilkinson as Sophie
Bertrand bides his time in a casually hostile and envious friendship with college chum Guillaume. But when ladies’ man Guillaume seems to be making a play for the spirited, independent Suzanne, Bertrand watches bitterly with disapproval and jealousy. With its ragged black-and-white 16 mm photography and strong sense of 1960s Paris, Rohmer’s second “Moral Tale†is a wonderfully evocative portrait of youthful naiveté and the complicated bonds of friendship and romance.
In 1962, filmmaker Eric Rohmer, a key figure in the post-war New Wave cinema in France and former editor of Cahiers du cinema began working on his eighth film, “Suzanne’s Career” (La carrière de Suzanne), the second film from his “Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales”.
The film has been released by The Criterion Collection as part of the DVD box set “Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales” that would deal with relationships but morality as the characters are shown in remarkable depth as they reflect on themselves, their feelings about religion to other things in life that many people deal with or think about but are not typically featured in films. The characters are at the forefront of Rohmer’s films and for the most part, the people he tends to feature are intelligent, articulate and literary young people, a different perspective of French cinema compared to other director’s covering youth in their films.
“Suzanne’s Career” is a story about two university friends. Guillame (played by Christian Charriere), the manipulative and really good with the ladies kind of guy and the main character/narrator, Bertrand (played by Philippe Beuzen), a young man who focuses on his college work but seems to get pulled into Guillame’s schemes.
The film revolves around Guillame meeting, dating and eventually having a relationship with a girl named Suzanne (played by Catherine See). Guillame looks at Suzanne as a young woman with money and uses his charm to exploit her. Bertrand hates it and his emotions go back and forth that he feels sorry for Suzanne but at the same time, when she falls for his charms, he feels that she deserves it for being stupid.
But his attitude towards Suzanne becomes more conflicted when Guillame and Suzanne split and Suzanne starts to get closer with Bertrand. Problem is, each time it seems as if Bertrand and Suzanne can get closer, Guillame forces himself into the situation and ends up getting closer to Suzanne. So, each time Betrand starts to feel that there is something between him and Suzanne, Guillame ends up changing things. But life changes for Suzanne when Guillame convinces Bertrand to let Suzanne use her money on them. She’s passive towards it and wants to do it. Bertrand feels bad but if she keeps on insisting to pay for them, he’s not going to stop her.
The film’s moral tale is if Bertrand should follow his buddy and manipulate Suzanne or to really become her friend, despite her being the ex-girlfriend of Guillame, a man that he looks up to. Things become even more complicated when Suzanne gets to a point where she is so broke and has no money for transportation or food. Will Bertrand treat her the same, even if she’s broke?
VIDEO:
“Suzanne’s Career” is presented in 1:33:1 black and white. Eric Rohmer is very big on 1:33:1 aspect ratio for his films. The picture quality for this 1963 film is OK considering the film is nearly 50-years-old. There are some scratches and dust that can be seen, also a good amount of grain from the original negative and some may see a little image flickering. According to Criterion, Director Eric Rohmer supervised and approved the high-definition digital transfer, which was created on a Spirit Datacine 35mm fine-grain master positive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
As for audio, the film is in mono, center channel driven. Criterion mentions that the soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from an optical soundtrack and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss and crackle. I preferred to listen to the film with my receiver set on stereo on all channels but dialogue is clear and understandable.
Subtitles are in English and subtitles are nice and clear with a black stroke around the character type.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Suzanne’s Career – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #344” contains the following special feature:
- Nadja in Paris (1964) – (13:10) Eric Rohmer’s short film about a girl named Nadja living in Paris. Nadja (who is half American/Yugoslavian) takes us on a tour of her life in Paris and being a university student.
“Suzanne’s Career” is an interesting film from Eric Rohmer. As Rohmer’s films progresses through “Six Moral Tales”, the films become more deeper, longer and more verbose but with this second film, it’s a different type of film compared to the other six in that the film is less verbose and deals with almost vanity and guys taking advantage of women by using their emotions against them.
In our lifetime, I’m sure everyone in life will know someone (man or woman) who are being taken advantage of by someone of the opposite sex but you always hope that person realizes what is going on and moves forward on to better things.”Suzanne’s Career” is a film about a person who is being taken advantage of (she likes to spend money on them and they know it and she ends up spending money on them wherever they go) and the film is narrated by a young man conflicted because he knows that what he’s doing is wrong but because his friend puts it into his mind that if she’s insisting to pay for it, let her. So, we see the moral complications for this film and fortunately, we get an ending that is quite satisfying.
I will say that because of the film’s title, there are times that made me feel that perhaps it was the guys being played. Maybe? There is a sort of vagueness towards Suzanne’s character but the film doesn’t focus too much on that side of her. But one thing we do know is how quick Suzanne’s decision making towards men tends to change quite quickly.
Overall, “Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales” is in my opinion one of the best DVD box sets in the collection. This second film for his “Six Moral Tales” and while a bit short, “Suzanne’s Career” is still a film that showcases man’s conscience and questioning the morality of their actions of what they could get themselves into if they pursue that direction. Also, showing us how far he would come when making his next film “My Night at Maud’s”, which he would make himself much more known to moviegoers internationally. While an entertaining film, the true payoff is actually this entire DVD box set and it’s definitely one of the better DVD box sets available from the Criterion Collection.
Definitely recommended!