Once again the local six screen multiplex offers a REDUCED choice as it is full of kid’s popcorn movies. There really needs to be an enquiry in the UK on how the two big chains, Odeon and UCI, have a stranglehold on distribution as the Odeons in particular seem to have the same movies running in all their outlets, stiffling diversity. So we found ourselves on a Saturday night celebrating the credit crunch in the warmth of our modest home with a M&S Meal for Two (Main course, side dish, desert and bottle of wine for £10.00) and watching a DVD of “Le Rayon vert” which was free with the Independent newspaper – cheap or what!
The Green Ray (French: Le Rayon vert) is a 1986 film by Éric Rohmer. It is released as “Summer” in North America. The film stars Marie Rivière, Rosette, Béatrice Romand, Carita and Vincent Gauthier. It is named for the novel of the same name by Jules Verne. It was shot in France on 16mm film and much of the dialogue is improvised. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize and the Golden Lion at the 1986 Venice Film Festival.
Delphine, a young secretary who lives in Paris, has her holiday plans upset when her fiancé and then her friend dump her. Half-heartedly, she agrees to accompany another friend to Cherbourg, but upset, she soon heads back to Paris. After an equally fruitless trip to the Alps, she heads for Biarritz, where she overhears the tale of the Green Ray. Lonely and unsure what to do, she tries to fill time, little thinking that the Green Ray will soon change her life.
Delphine
I have had a great weakness for Éric Rohmer’s work since seeing Claire’s Knee in the Irish Film Theatre in Dublin’s Earlsfort Terrace in the 70s. Then it was about the only place in Ireland to see alternative cinema (in the days before video and the internet). Like most of Eric Rohmer's work, you either enjoy the laid-back atmosphere and chatty characters in Claire's Knee, or find it all incredibly boring. I happen to love them. It's rare to find movies that don't want to be sensationalistic and violent, but would rather present universal questions and then investigate them throughout the course of the movie.
I would recommend Love in the Afternoon as an entry into Rohmer however, as it is a little pacier for those unfamiliar with his style. And so it was wonderful after all these years to rediscover Rohmer with “Le Rayon vert” which is not entirely commercial in the spirit of Hollywood and the popcorn movies which monopolise our local cinema as its subject matter is boredom!
Shot in 16mm and with much of the dialogue improvised this technique at times gives the film an awkward feel which of course echoes the sense of dislocation of the central character, Delphine, played by Rohmer favourite Marie Rivière who wrote and improvised much of her own dialogue. Éric Rohmer's films have few characters, usually concentrating on a single human drama dissected in minute detail. But all the introspection is very human, it brings out the anguish, there is nothing cerebral about his films. His highly intelligent dialogue enables actors to submerge themselves in their characters bringing them intensely alive. Rohmer maintains visual interest with fine street and café locations, and eschews background music.
Delphine (Marie Rivière) is a young woman who doesn’t know exactly what she wants in life, and who is unable to relate well to others. In her own words, "I'm not very operational in life".
That characteristic is especially easy to see when, due to unforeseen circumstances, she goes on holidays alone. She visits many places, but there is always a problem: her. Delphine feels she needs someone to be complete, and gets depressed because she doesn't seem to attract the opposite sex. On the other hand, when young men get near her she rejects them, as they are not what she is looking for. Will that change? And what does the green ray has to do with Delphine's quest for love?
Arguably the most visually poetic of Rohmer’s films in his series of Comédies et Proverbes, Le Rayon vert is an engaging, wistful tale which easily evokes the sense of yearning and isolation which marks many of Rohmer’s better films. The central character, Delphine, appears to be locked into a hopeless situation where she has no choices to improve her situation. With its allusions to fortune reading and supernatural influences, Le Rayon vert is much more about chance than individual choice. The cinematographic style takes precedence over the narrative, although this film appears to be more directionless than most of his films. Whilst this creates a sense of frustration at times, the mesmerising effect of Rohmer’s approach, with its emphasis on capturing life as it really is, reinforced with strong natural sounds, maintains the viewer’s attention.
The film’s beautiful resolution makes this both a memorable and immensely satisfying work of cinema. When her fiancé and then her friend dump her the shock focuses Delphine's mind on her loneliness and the film follows her gradually disintegration into depression. This is superbly acted and directed and psychologically accurate. The driver behind the story line of Delphine having to holiday alone is a metaphor for the alienation and rejection we all have to cope with on numerous levels in life. The film visually might not be all that remarkable but rather it's more like a good book whose central idea stays with you for a long time after you have finished reading it.
The title “The Green Ray” refers to the Jules Verne novel The Green Ray and provides both the fixation in the story line that will convince Delphine that her life and love is back in the right place after the alienation she has suffered and it provides the coup de theatre for the film’s denouement. Green flashes and green rays are rare optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset or before sunrise, when a green spot is visible for a short period of time above the sun, or a green ray shoots up from the sunset point. The reason for a green flash lies in refraction of light (as in a prism) in the atmosphere: light moves more slowly in the lower, denser air than in the thinner air above, so sunlight rays follow paths that curve slightly, in the same direction as the curvature of the Earth. Higher frequency light (green/blue) curves more than lower frequency light (red/orange), so green/blue rays from the upper limb of the setting sun remain visible after the red rays are obstructed by the curvature of the earth.
Jules Verne novel The Green Ray
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