FOUR ADVENTURES OF REINETTE AND MIRABELLE (4 aventures de
Reinette et Mirabelle) B
France (95 mi) 1987
d: Éric Rohmer
This is a delightful series of four short films, one of the
most enjoyable and amusing in the entire Rohmer repertoire, unraveling with the
conceptual detail of short stories, each starring the darling duo of Reinette
(Joëlle Miquel) and Mirabelle (Jessica Ford), something of a variation on the
theme of Rivette’s quirky adventurists, Céline
and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau) (1974). Another cinéma vérité film shot
on 16 mm, blown up to 35 mm, it was allegedly made very quickly while Rohmer
was waiting for sunset shots in his previous film Le
Rayon Vert (Summer) (1986), using many non-professional actors in the cast who
were given plenty of leeway to improvise, accounting, perhaps, for a more
free-wheeling style than usual. Set in a highly colorful scheme of bright
pastels dominated by the color red, the work is a personality driven film,
where the charming spirit of these two women is thrust to the forefront.
The stories themselves are vignettes dominated by smaller moments, not life
changing decisions, the kinds of things they experience every day, where they
each obviously have an impact on the other’s life. Reinette’s younger,
idealistic enthusiasm and zeal is countered by Mirabelle’s acerbic tongue, dry
wit, and more laid back approach, where their differences are inevitably
highlighted, yet their friendship endures, becoming extremely familiar after
awhile, as if we grew up knowing them.
The Blue Hour (L'heure
bleue)
Opening in the beautiful empty spaces of a rural country
road, Mirabelle pulls her bike off to the side of the road, but can’t fix her
flat due to a tire puncture. Reinette, who lives nearby, offers
assistance, where we literally witness her repairing the puncture in real time,
fast becoming friends, where Reinette offers her a place to stay for awhile.
Mirabelle is a Parisian on holiday with her parents nearby, but has never
experienced the countryside, something Reinette is intimately familiar with,
living in what Mirabelle describes as a hayloft which has been converted to her
living quarters, offering plenty of space and light, essential ingredients for
a painter. Much of this is spent discovering the rustic charm of rural
life, where people grow their own food to eat and raise livestock, where the
chirping sounds in the air seem quiet compared to the noisy Parisian
streets. Reinette’s favorite sound, however, is the utter silence in the country
that lasts for perhaps a minute, a pre-dawn transcendental moment occurring
between darkness and light just after the night animals go to sleep and just
before the day animals awaken, where you have to get up early to experience
it. Nonetheless, through a bit of perseverance, which also includes a
wildly inventive dance number, they eventually experience the blue hour
together.
The Coffee-Shop's
Waiter (Le garçon de café)
Leaving the country for the city, Mirabelle invites Reinette
to be her roommate in Paris when she attends art school, both university
students at different schools, where they decide to meet at an outdoor café
after class one day. Featuring the grouchy irritability of Philippe
Laudenbach as the ill-mannered waiter, a guy who takes rudeness to higher
levels, making the simple transaction of making change to a customer an act of
indignation and outright refusal, refusing on the grounds the customer doesn’t
have smaller bills. While this is exaggerated farce, much like handing the
waiter a hundred dollar bill for a cup of coffee, where the establishment holds
the customer hostage and in contempt, it instead turns into an extended essay
on morals and honesty, as Reinette insists she be taken seriously when she says
she’ll pay, but as neither have small enough bills, they instead flee the
scene, exactly as the rude waiter suggests they would. The verbal fireworks
here grow repetitive, but they establish the high minded principles that the
fiery Reinette lives by.
The Beggar, The
Kleptomaniac and The Swindler (Le mendiant, la kleptomane et l'arnaqueuse)
Reinette reveals she’s not so jaded as city cynics when she
offers small change to needy panhandlers, which catches Mirabelle off guard, as
there are so many on the streets, you simply can’t support them all.
Reinette claims her system is to decipher those in need and offer something she
can afford. It’s amusing afterwards to see Mirabelle filling the coffers
of needy beggars. Taking place almost entirely in a neighborhood grocery,
Mirabelle appears to be considering shoplifting when she instead is surprised
to see another customer blatantly steal an item and place it in her zip-up
shoulder bag, taking even greater interest when she notices the customer being
followed by store detectives. This turns into a veritable Keystone Cops
episode of classic misdirection, which is then discussed afterwards by the duo
at home, where both offer surprisingly individualistic philosophic views on
just what is considered grounds for righteous indignation, which is immediately
put to the test when they meet Marie Rivière performing a con solicitation act
which Reinette initially falls for and later wants to exact justice.
Selling the Painting
(La vente du tableau)
Reinette is a surprisingly good self-taught Surrealist painter, which means her lack of training actually offers her insight not shared by those painters who uniformly follow the teachings of others. But she has a philosophy that art should be met with silence, that words come afterwards when attempting to fathom the subject. After a non-stop talkathon by Reinette, where despite several hints to cease and desist, she’s all wound up and just won’t shut up, Mirabelle challenges her to a day of silence. But when an art dealer calls (Fabrice Luchini) to offer an appraisal of one of her works, they concoct a plan to go into the gallery one at a time, hoping to get the best deal, where the results are surprising. The audience knows something is up, but they haven’t a clue just what’s in store. It’s a clever segment, made even more interesting by the dubious behavior of the unscrupulous dealer, where the element of surprise makes this an absurd, sleight-of-hand theater piece.
