Claire's Knee

Claire's Knee
Claire's Knee
	Film poster
Directed by	Éric Rohmer
Written by	Éric Rohmer
Produced by	; Barbet Schroeder
Starring	Jean-Claude Brialy ; Aurora Cornu ; Béatrice Romand ;
Cinematography	Néstor Almendros
Edited by
Distributed by	Les Films du Losange (France); Columbia Pictures (USA)
Release date	11 December 1970 (France); 21 February 1971 (USA);
Running time	106 minutes
Language	French
Box office	638,445 admissions (France)

Claire's Knee (French: Le Genou de Claire) is a 1970 French drama film directed by Éric Rohmer. It is the fifth movie in the series of the Six Moral Tales.

Plot[]

The story happens between 29 June and 29 July, presumably in 1970. Intertitles of the dates are displayed before the daily events are shown.

While holidaying at Lake Annecy on the eve of his wedding, career diplomat Jérôme accidentally meets up with Aurora, an old personal friend. Through Aurora, he meets Aurora's landlady, Madame Walter, and Laura, Madame Walter's youngest teenage daughter. Observant Aurora detects Laura's crush on Jérôme, and advises Jérôme of such. After Jérôme and Laura take a hike in the mountains together, she confesses that she is "a little in love with" Jérôme.

Days later (on 8 July), Laura's attractive older step-sister Claire arrives. Upon seeing Claire's knee while she is on a ladder, Jérôme finds himself longing to touch it. However, he controls his temptation. Eventually an opportunity presents itself during a boat trip on the lake when Jérôme and Claire have to seek shelter in a hut from an approaching storm. Jérôme tells Claire that he saw her boyfriend, Gilles, together with another girl. When Claire starts to cry Jérôme consoles her by placing his hand upon Claire's knee.

Cast[]

Jean-Claude Brialy as Jérôme Montcharvin, the diplomat
Aurora Cornu as Aurora, the novelist
Béatrice Romand as Laura, the younger step-sister
as Claire, the elder step-sister
as Madame Walter, the mother of Laura
as Gilles
Fabrice Luchini as Vincent

Accolades[]

The film received the Louis Delluc Prize for Best French film of the year,^[2] the 1971 Prix Méliès and the Grand Prix at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.^[3] It was named Best Film by the National Society of Film Critics and Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards.

It was a huge international success. Vincent Canby called it "something close to a perfect film."^[4] Cecile Mury of Télérama said "This camera outdoors gives the appearance of a small story where it goes 'nothing.' Yet these 'fragments of a love speech' make up a special study of desire, verbal pleasure, almost literary, which accompanies every inclination. A jewel."

Style[]

It was Rohmer's second film shot in color, with Rohmer explaining "the presence of the lake and the mountains is stronger in color than in black and white. It is a film I couldn't imagine in black and white. The color green seems to me essential in that film...This film would have no value to me in black and white."^[4]

References[]

^ Box Office information for Jean Claude Brialy films at Box Office Story
^ Hal Erickson (2007). "Claire's Knee (1970)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2012.
^ Ruadhán Mac Cormaic (2010-01-11). "Film-maker Rohmer dies in Paris". The Irish Times. Retrieved February 22, 2015
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b John Wakeman, World Film Directors, Volume 2, 1945-1985. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1988. pp. 919-928.

External links[]

Claire's Knee at IMDb
Claire's Knee at Rotten Tomatoes
Claire's Knee at AllMovie
Claire’s Knee: Rohmer’s Women an essay by Molly Haskell at the Criterion Collection
on Claire’s Knee by Daniel Hayes

[1] Box Office information for Jean Claude Brialy films at Box Office Story

[NYT_Overview-2] Hal Erickson (2007). "Claire's Knee (1970)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2012.

[Film-maker_Rohmer_dies_in_Paris-3] Ruadhán Mac Cormaic (2010-01-11). "Film-maker Rohmer dies in Paris". The Irish Times. Retrieved February 22, 2015

[Wakeman._pp._919-928-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b John Wakeman, World Film Directors, Volume 2, 1945-1985. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1988. pp. 919-928.

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show v t Films directed by Éric Rohmer
Feature films	The Sign of Leo (1962) Suzanne's Career (1963) Paris vu par (segment "Place de l'Étoile") (1965) La Collectionneuse (1967) My Night at Maud's (1969) Claire's Knee (1970) Love in the Afternoon (1972) L'enfance d'une ville (1975) The Marquise of O (1976) Perceval le Gallois (1978) Catherine de Heilbronn (1980) The Aviator's Wife (1981) Le Beau Mariage (1982) Pauline at the Beach (1983) Full Moon in Paris (1984) The Green Ray (1986) Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (1987) Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987) Le trio en si bémol (1988) Les Jeux de société (1989) A Tale of Springtime (1990) A Tale of Winter (1992) L'Arbre, le maire et la médiathèque (1993) Les Rendez-vous de Paris (1995) A Summer's Tale (1996) Autumn Tale (1998) The Lady and the Duke (2001) Triple Agent (2004) Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007)
Shorts	Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak (1951) Véronique et son cancre (1958) The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1963) Les métamorphoses du paysage : l'ère industrielle (1964) Les cabinets de physique : la vie de société au 18e siècle (1964) Les caractères de La Bruyère (1965) Les histoires extraordinaires d'Edgar Poe (1965) Entretien sur Pascal (1965) Louis Lumière / conversation avec Langlois et Renoir (1968) Victor Hugo architecte (1969)
Filmography Les films du losange

show v t Golden Shell
1953–1975	I Was a Parish Priest (1953) Sierra maldita (1954) Days of Love (1955) The Railroad Man (1956) Oh! Sabella (1957) (1958) The Nun's Story (1959) Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (1960) One-Eyed Jacks (1961) Arturo's Island (1962) Mafioso (1963) America America (1964) / Mirage (1965) I Was Happy Here (1966) Two for the Road (1967) The Long Day's Dying (1968) The Rain People (1969) Dead of Summer (1970) Claire's Knee (1971) The Glass House (1972) The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) Badlands (1974) Furtivos (1975)
1976–2000	Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven (1976) An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1977) Alambrista! (1978) Autumn Marathon (1979) The Orchestra Conductor (1980) Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) Demons in the Garden (1982) Entre Nous (1983) Rumble Fish (1984) Yesterday (1985) Half of Heaven (1986) Wedding in Galilee (1987) On the Black Hill (1988) Homer and Eddie / (1989) Letters from Alou (1990) Butterfly Wings (1991) A Place in the World (1992) The Beginning and the End / Sara (1993) Dias contados (1994) Margaret's Museum (1995) Bwana / Trojan Eddie (1996) The Swindle (1997) (1998) (1999) (2000)
2001–present	A Cab for Three (2001) Mondays in the Sun (2002) (2003) Turtles Can Fly (2004) Something Like Happiness (2005) Half Moon / Mon fils à moi (2006) A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007) Pandora's Box (2008) City of Life and Death (2009) Neds (2010) (2011) In the House (2012) Bad Hair (2013) Magical Girl (2014) Sparrows (2015) I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016) The Disaster Artist (2017) (2018) (2019) Beginning (2020)

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General	WorldCat (via Library of Congress)
National libraries	United States