Éric Rohmer explains why he didn't like his movies being screened at crowded theaters:
"If it depended only on me, instead of attracting people to my films, I would try to drive them away. I would tell them the films are more difficult than they really are, because I don’t like to deceive people, I like to show my films to people who can appreciate them.
I’m not interested in the number of spectators. Having said that, it’s true that a film is a commercial undertaking and ought to recover its costs. But as my films don’t cost much, I don’t think I need a very large audience, and I’ve always thought that they should be shown in theaters that aren’t too big. The intimate character of my films doesn’t suit a theater or an audience too large for them. And I don’t think they are suited to a mass reaction or a collective reaction. It’s better if the spectator feels he is experiencing a completely personal reaction to it.
Each reaction should be unique, individual, and different. I think the film is enjoyed better if the spectators aren’t sitting too near one another, if the theater isn’t too full, and they don’t know each other. Then each has a different reaction. That’s better than a theater where there’s a uniform reaction. I don’t like watching one of my films in public and it distresses me if everyone laughs in the same place, as my film wasn’t made with that in mind. I didn’t write something just to make everyone laugh at the same time. It’s all right if someone smiles, but it shouldn’t happen at exactly the same place in the film. Perhaps this is because my films are more like reading than like watching a spectacle; they are made more to be read like a book than seen like something on the stage. So it distresses me to see a collective reaction."
(Éric Rohmer's interview with Éric Rohmer, 1971)
Clip from:
La collectionneuse (1967)
Director: Éric Rohmer
Full Excerpt:
"Interviewer: Would you agree that the endings of your films tend to be rather sad?
Rohmer: They are not what one is expecting to happen; they are to some extent against the person concerned. What happens is against the wishes of the character, it’s a kind of disillusionment, a conflict—not exactly a failure on his part but a disillusionment.
The character has made a mistake; he realizes he has created an illusion for himself. He had created a kind of world for himself, with himself at the center, and it all seemed perfectly logical that he should be the ruler or the god of this world.
Everything seemed very simple and all my characters are a bit obsessed with logic. They have a system and principles, and they build up a world that can be explained by this system. And then the conclusion of the film demolishes their system and their illusions collapse. It’s not exactly happy, but that’s what the films are all about."
(Éric Rohmer's interview with Graham Petrie, 1971)
La collectionneuse (1967, Rohmer)
"All my characters are a bit obsessed with logic. They have a system & principles, & they build up a world that can be explained by this system. Then the conclusion of the film demolishes their system & their illusions collapse."
— Éric Rohmer