ÉRIC ROHMER, THE SPIRIT OF CHILDHOOD / ERIC ROHMER, ESPRIT D'ENFANCE / ЕРІК РОМЕР: ДУХ ДИТИНСТВА

Aug 12
2 min read

Updated: Aug 24

2025 / 60' / documentary / France

The great New Wave filmmaker, Éric Rohmer, has never proclaimed himself a genius. From Le Signe du lion (1962) to The Romance of Astrea and Céladon (2007), he developed highly unusual ways of working, which gave his films a unique quality in their apparent fragility: tape recordings of conversations with his cast, location recces and shoots on the sly, mixing fiction with documentary... This is an intimate piece of skilfully crafted work; he has set it up as if to create the illusion that the cinematic story came about by itself, through chance encounters. It is this Rohmeresque alchemy that is revealed by the documentary with its film clips, rare interviews he has given and previously unseen test shoots (sketches, retakes), but also with a few Rosebud moments hidden away in his childhood home in Correze. The intention was not to make a Rohmer biography, nor to find some secret or other in his life. His dual identity, clearly separating Éric Rohmer, the public man, from Maurice Schérer, the private one, could, however, invite such an approach. But a mysterious link exists between the two, which is intriguing and perhaps entails being revisited through film.

Screenings schedule:

August 29, 2026 at 05:00 p.m. at the Zhovten Cinema, Anschlag Hall; 26 Kostiantynivska Street

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DIRECTORS - PASCALE BOUHÉNIC and NOËL HERPE

Biography

Pascale Bouhénic is a French writer and director of documentaries on art and literature, born on 1 May 1963 in Asnières-sur-Seine. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal Vacarme.

Selected filmography

2023: Mark Rothko
2021: Jean de La Fontaine
2020: James Tissot

Biography

Noël Herpe is a senior lecturer at the University of Paris 8. A historian of French cinema and the author or editor of books on René Clair, Éric Rohmer and Jean-Christophe Averty, he curated the Sacha Guitry and Henri-Georges Clouzot exhibitions at the Cinémathèque Française. He is also the author of autobiographical works (published notably by L’Arbalète/Gallimard) and fiction films.

Selected filmography