Den franske regissøren Eric Rohmer er død, 89 år gammel. Rohmer døde mandag etter en ukes tid på sykehus. Han er kanskje mest kjent for La Collectionneuse, Kjærlighet om ettermiddagen, Claires Kne og Min natt med Maud. Det var med sistnevnte film Rohmer fikk sitt kommersielle gjennombrudd. I 2001 mottok han Gulløven under filmfestivalen i Venezia for sin innsats for filmen. I forbindelse med et retrospektiv i 2001 skrev forfatter og produsent James Schamus følgende:
«Rohmer uses annoyance to achieve the sublime. His trick: to make us think that personality is a kind of illusory irritant, an encumbrance that keeps us from our presumed moral centers, but which, finally, turns out to be the very register of our moral being. Think of Delphine, the irrititatingly depressed secretary heroine of Le rayon vert (1986) — and one of the great mise en abymes of dialogue in cinema history: she’s at her friend’s summer cottage, an outsider surrounded by solicitous friends of friends, and she refuses the barbequed pork, politely explaining that she’s a vegetarian.
A polite query follows: «Should we prepare you something else?» «Sorry, we didn’t know of your specific dietary needs.» She tries her best to brush it off, but as she talks, and the more she talks, the more absurd, grating, hostile, self-defeating, alienating, tragic, weepy her explanations and excuses become. Rohmer creates an embarrassment so exquisite, a self-consciousness so finely attuned, this little scene takes on the psychic dimensions of a Busby Berkeley musical number, and all in glorious 16mm.»
The Guardian-kritikeren Peter Bradshaw omtaler Rohmer som en «philosopher, rhetorician, and an ally of the young».
Traileren til Min natt med Maud:
