Suzanne's Career
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Suzanne's Career | |
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Directed by | Éric Rohmer |
Written by | Éric Rohmer |
Produced by | Barbet Schroeder |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Daniel Lacambre |
Edited by | Éric Rohmer |
Release date |
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Running time | 54 min |
Language | French |
Suzanne's Career is a 1963 film by Éric Rohmer. The French title is La carrière de Suzanne. It is the second movie in the series of the Six Moral Tales. A flirty Guillaume seduces a woman named Suzanne, which becomes problematic for his friendship with the shy Bertrand, especially when Guillaume's and Suzanne's relationship becomes strained.
Plot[]
This film takes place in a time of turmoil in France, due to the Cold War and the Algerian War. Two students in Paris, Bertrand (the first person narrator telling us this story from some point in the future), timid, young, and in pharmacy school and the brash Guillaume, who is something of a womanizer, encounter the independent and articulate Suzanne at a café. She has a full-time job and is quite independent, living alone and doing whatever she pleases. Guillaume uses his wit and charm to flirt with and seduce her. She quickly succumbs to Guillaume's coarse advances. After bedding her, he becomes bored, but continues to lead her on despite complaining about her and flirting with other women.
Bertrand believes that Suzanne must lack self-respect in order to let herself be treated so poorly, but remains silent and continues to abet Guillaume's antics. In an effort to regain Guillaume's attention, Suzanne cultivates an interest in Bertrand, spending what little money she has on him. Bertrand ends up despising her even more after he and Guillaume ruin Suzanne financially. Throughout, Bertrand has a crush on her more conventionally pretty Irish friend, Sophie, who vigorously defends Suzanne from Bertrand's critiques. After a party, Suzanne has no money to get home so Bertrand reluctantly says she can sleep in the chair in his room. He means this literally, taking the bed himself as he has an exam in the morning. The next day, he returns to his room to escort Suzanne out only to find money missing from his room. Bertrand blames Suzanne, even though both Suzanne and Guillaume had a chance to take the money, but Sophie thinks it more likely he was robbed earlier by Guillaume.
A year later, when Bertrand is swimming with Sophie, they meet Suzanne with her new fiancé, who is handsome, well-off and charming. The couple are happy together (while Bertrand informs us his relationship with Sophie was in the process of ending) and Bertrand admits he had misjudged Suzanne and that, whether purposely or not, she won because she took away any right he had to pity her and in the end, that is the best revenge.
Cast[]
- : Suzanne Hocquetot
- : Guillaume Peuch-Drumond
- : Bertrand, the narrator
- : Sophie
- : Jean-Louis
- Patrick Bauchau: Frank
- : the art lover/party guest
- Jean-Louis Comolli: party guest
References[]
External links[]
- Suzanne's Career at IMDb
- Suzanne's Career at Rotten Tomatoes
- Suzanne's Career at AllMovie
- Suzanne's Career at IMDb
- Eric Rohmer: Blueprints for a Brilliant Oeuvre an essay by Ginette Vincendeau at the Criterion Collection
- 1963 films
- French-language films
- 1963 drama films
- Films directed by Éric Rohmer
- French films
- Films produced by Barbet Schroeder
- 1960s French film stubs