morrison-dylan-fan Expecting to find all the extras in the DVD box set to be placed in the final,I was surprised to find a bonus DVD inside the case for the 4th title in Éric Rohmer's loose series,which led to me looking up at the moon in Paris.The plot:While happy with her boyfriend Remi,Louise is unable to brush away a desire to have her own personal space.Moving away to her own flat in Paris,Louise makes a deal with Remi,that they will only break up if either of them falls in love with someone else.Moving away from Remi,Louise soon discovers that this deal will have to be faced earlier than she expected.View on the film:Spending most of the movie in flats, (with the odd breakout of dancing at parties in the outside world) writer/director Éric Rohmer and cinematographer Renato Berta sterilise Louise's rooms,which are breached out in saturated whites and dour blacks.Leaving Louise on her own,Rohmer boils up a minimalist atmosphere that cuts any music from the soundtrack and leaves Louise's hollow footsteps as the lone sound. Spanning a number of months,the screenplay by Rohmer captures Louise's belief of everything remaining still,whilst she takes her own sidetracks.Whilst this does catch some of Louise "in the moment" thinking,it also leads to an emotional depth between Louise and Remi never fully being explored. For his major auteur focus on the bourgeoisie,Rohmer gives Louise's relationships a bitter after taste,but disappointingly keeps the focus on the incredibly dry surface of Louise's life,as a full moon appears in Paris.

MartinHafer This story is about a couple living together. Over and over, Louise tells Remi that she loves him but their lives are so different it's hard to imagine them staying together. She loves to party and he's a real home body. In fact, she loves living "the single life" so much, she's arranged to have an apartment for herself in Paris so she can stay there much of the time--all the while insisting that she loves Remi. He begs her to stay, but she insists on spending part of her life in town alone. Well, over time, she slowly begins to pull away from him--especially when she starts to suspect HE might be cheating on her (though SHE was the one who made all the arrangements to make it possible for her to do the cheating). So, since she assumes he's cheating, she picks a guy to sleep with--no love--just a one night stand. Well, she returns home to Remi only to discover that he, too, is having an affair but his is very serious and he asks her to leave. This seems to be a great example of the old saying "be careful what you ask for--you might just get it".The acting is good and the story pretty involving. I like it because nothing in the movie happens by accident--Louise sets everything in motion and then is surprised when the life she chose occurs. There's a lot of irony and some lessons about relationships here.PS--this is NOT a good film for kids. First, they would be bored by the story and because you get to see a pretty explicit view of Louise late in the film. Be forewarned.

LeRoyMarko I enjoy this film very much. Rohmer as a way to describe feelings, to describe how those feelings can get all twisted sometimes. Love and the numerous questions it brings is well put to light. Books, smart funny talks and more... Pascale Ogier is superb. As for Fabrice Luchini, he's one of my favorite actor. He performs so well in this kind of role. And the name "Octave" fits him like a glove!Out of 100, I gave it 81. That's good for *** out of ****.Seen at home, in Toronto, on January 14, 2003.

zetes Sure, other artists, countless others, have spent their lives depicting the interrelationships of men and women. But I don't know of anyone who so consistently seems to understand human relationships than Eric Rohmer. So few can build as believable characters, such believable situations. Full Moon in Paris concerns a young woman, Louise (Pascale Ogier), who has arrived at a point of extreme confusion: she loves her long-time boyfriend, Rémi (Tchéky Karyo), but she desperately wants to be alone for once in her life. Rémi likes his life the way he has it, living in the suburbs, doing his job, coming home to Louise. But it's all too stifling for her. She rents an apartment in Paris, but that only partly steadies her mind. Louise also has another, more ambiguous boyfriend, Octave (Fabrice Luchini, who appears in several Rohmer films and stars in my very favorite, Perceval le Gallois). Their relationship is definitely on the romantic side, but both seem to be in it, at least most of the time, for each other's company. They can talk, where Rémi isn't an especially gifted conversationalist (not a good character trait if you're in a Rohmer film!). The film moves along as well as any Rohmer film, but for a long time I was pretty sure that Rohmer wouldn't be able to end it in any significant way, that it would end up being a great film (like I say, I couldn't find one of his films any less), but not one of his best. Fortunately, Rohmer really does find the perfect ending, which ends up lifting the film up and making it one of the director's best. The film really benefits from its perfectly written characters and amazing acting, as well. Ogier gives one of the strongest central performances in Rohmer's canon. Fabrice Luchini, man, I love this actor! He stars in my favorite Rohmer film and has a small roll in my second favorite (the vastly underrated 4 Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle from 1987). Luchini is so perfect here, so subtly hilarious that most will not notice it. During one of Octave's many conversations with Louise, he rattles off a really good line and has to stop to write it down. Louise understandingly excuses herself to the restroom to give him time to get his quip recorded. 9/10.