In recent years, most French films I have seen seems to have been sexually obsessed. This is interesting and may account for some of the reason Americans and Frenchmen often don't seem to see eye to eye. American films are many times sexually obsessed as well, though not as apparently often and not in films from the 1930s to the 1960s. However, sex, not love, was the focus in many French films from this same period--such as The Rules of the Game (1939) and La Ronde (1950). Now I am NOT making a blanket indictment of French films--I LOVE many of them and have great respect for the work. However, it's a real shame, as I began watching many more French films in recent months so I could find some good and acceptable French films for students in our school's French classes and I have been FAR less successful than I'd hoped.
In the case of La Ronde, the stories, though well presented, do not center on love but sex and STDs. The movie opens with a wonderful narrator (sort of like a cupid who likes to encourage and set up sexual encounters--not making the couples fall head over heals in love). The first is a rather surly soldier who gets a "quickie" under the bridge with a prostitute (this is certainly NOT a romance) and goes from there to various adulterous affairs involving unfaithful wives as well as husbands. We are also told that "love" is very fleeting and NEVER lasts. Perhaps this is true with prostitutes and mistresses, but saying all love is fleeting is a very sad message indeed.
If the movie had instead focused on real love and not solely the glandular type, this could have been a VERY sweet and well-crafted movie. As it is, it is a smarmy and still well-crafted movie.
The comment made by writers_reign about this movie was brilliant and undoubtedly true. In light of STD transmission, this puts the movie in a new light and makes a lot of sense. Still, is THAT really what you want to see?! YUCK!
In the case of La Ronde, the stories, though well presented, do not center on love but sex and STDs. The movie opens with a wonderful narrator (sort of like a cupid who likes to encourage and set up sexual encounters--not making the couples fall head over heals in love). The first is a rather surly soldier who gets a "quickie" under the bridge with a prostitute (this is certainly NOT a romance) and goes from there to various adulterous affairs involving unfaithful wives as well as husbands. We are also told that "love" is very fleeting and NEVER lasts. Perhaps this is true with prostitutes and mistresses, but saying all love is fleeting is a very sad message indeed.
If the movie had instead focused on real love and not solely the glandular type, this could have been a VERY sweet and well-crafted movie. As it is, it is a smarmy and still well-crafted movie.
The comment made by writers_reign about this movie was brilliant and undoubtedly true. In light of STD transmission, this puts the movie in a new light and makes a lot of sense. Still, is THAT really what you want to see?! YUCK!