Film Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Le Beau Mariage
Directed by Eric Rohmer
Media Home Entertainment/Heron Communications 08/82 DVD/VHS Feature Film
Not Rated

Eric Rohmer's Le Beau Mariage is the second in a series of his works called "Comedies and Proverbs." It follows The Aviator's Wife.

Sabine, an art student who works in an antique store, breaks off her unrewarding love affair with a married artist and decides to find a husband. Her best friend's cousin Edmond fills the bill — he's single, handsome, and rich. With an off-putting earnestness, she sets out to make him love her. But the harder Sabine tries, the more he hides behind his work.

The Romanic interplay between the sexes is the motor driving all of this French director's films. Here Rohmer probes the entertaining idea that one can make love happen by an act of will. Beatrice Romand is convincing as Sabine, a determined young woman with an "artistic temperament"; Arielle Dombasle is appropriately perplexed as her helpful friend and matchmaker; and Andre Dussollier pulls off the role of Edmond, a self-absorbed lawyer who awkwardly attempts to deflect Cupid's arrow.

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat