Éric Rohmer
1987
99 minutes
This is a fun film that's a breezy ninety minutes but is going to feel like the pilot and first three episodes of an aborted dramedy sitcom based on the friendship of two French girls, one a country mouse and the other a city mouse. The women are beautiful and charming, the premise is nice, and the individual "adventures" are well-written and do a good job of conveying some quirky and believeable characters.
The first tableau has the two women meeting in the country. The artsy and sensitive Reinette, the country girl, quickly befriends the more worldly Mirabelle, a Parisian on holiday. They get to know each other and Reinette tries to share with Mirabelle what she calls "The Blue Hour", the moment in the dawn twilight when the sky is blue because the sun is below the horizon, when night has ended but before day has begun. She is insistent on the magic moment being a minute of perfect silence, just after the night noises end and before the morning noises begin. This gets spoiled the first night they try to observe it by a passing tractor, and Reinette breaks down in tears at the disappointment. Mirabelle touchingly extends her stay another day so they get a second chance, and this time they are successful.
The other stories are set in the city. The second episode has Reinette struggling to navigate Paris as Mirabelle's new roommate, and having a bad encounter with a rude waiter at a cafe, a familiar Parisian stereotype. Reinette of course comes along and comedically shows how a real Parisian girl handles such a creature. The third has both girls dealing with a beggar, a shoplifter, and a train station con artist in their own ways, and arguing amongst themselves about their respective philosophies dealing with such people on the margins. This one hits home for you pretty well since it has been a common conflict in your life, from your past as a cabbie and from your present as a frequent flier on the streets of Baltimore. You've had many such conversations with friends about the proper and moral way to cope with such hazards.
The last piece is particularly funny and well done and develops both characters into very weird, charming young women with their own quirks. Reinette and Mirabelle argue about what a chatterbox the talkative Reinette can be, and a bet is made that Reinette can't stay silent for a day. Unfortunately she gets a call to try to sell one of her paintings to a gallery owner. Mirabelle offers to let her out of the bet--she's not a monster, after all. But Reinette stubbornly insists on going through with it anyway. This leads to her attempting to negotiate silently with the gallery owner with Mirabelle eventually intervening in a bit of a farce.
All of these are so well-written, well-acted, and interwoven that you wish there was an entire season of sitcoms to watch with this much heart. It's a light, fun movie with low stakes, and watching it feels like you're healing a dusty and cynical part of your brain.
Time to choose something different: