The Bakery Girl of Monceau

A law student in Paris becomes interested in a woman named Sylvie whom he sees in the street. She disappears. While looking for her he goes to the same bakery every day and starts flirting with the girl behind the counter. Then Sylvie comes back and he has to make a choice, or rather, has to explain to himself the choice he makes. Éric Rohmer writes and directs. It runs twenty six minutes and is the first of the Six Moral Tales. One name in the cast is surprising: the student is played by Barbet Schroeder, Rohmer's producer and later a director himself. The voice is not his; Bertrand Tavernier dubbed him. All the rules of the series are already set. A man is attached to a woman, a second woman appears, he strays, and in the end he returns to the first. The telling is done in voiceover, and the voice is permanently justifying its own behaviour. Rohmer's real subject is not love but the story a person tells himself. It was made extremely cheaply, shot silent on 16 mm and dubbed afterwards. Who it is for: viewers who like Rohmer and the talk driven branch of the French New Wave. Who it is not for: it is short and small. If you want a large story, almost nothing happens here.