Min venninnes venn

A portrait of young people in a newly designed urban landscape.

The final film in the series Komedier og ordspråk takes place in the new satellite town of Cergy-Pontoise, outside Paris. Twenty-four-year-old Blanche feels out of place in the modern surroundings and knows few people her own age. Then she meets Léa, who is a little older, energetic and bohemian. Léa is with Fabien, a down-to-earth, somewhat settled sports enthusiast with whom she no longer has much in common. Blanche, on the other hand, likes Fabien.

From this seemingly trivial and potentially banal premise, Rohmer creates a wise, witty and precise story about friendship, love and self-knowledge. The film is also a fascinating portrait of Cergy-Pontoise, the forward-looking suburb designed by Argentine architect Ricardo Bofill to represent a new way of life. Its artificial lakes, open squares, office buildings and residential areas shape not only the story but also the relationships between the characters. Chance encounters happen because the town is planned that way, and its vast modern spaces reflect loneliness, hope and the search for a sense of community.

Rohmer always had a keen eye for how place, architecture and the seasons shape human behaviour, and in Min venninnes venn the new suburb is almost a character in its own right. With a light touch, he conveys both the charm and the strangeness of this planned urban landscape, without mocking it or romanticising it. The result is one of his brightest and most charming films: a story as much about finding our place in the world as about whom we fall in love with.

“Funny, moving and full of insight that other directors barely dream of.”

Time Out

“It’s 102 minutes; they are all wonderful”

Vincent Canby, The New York Times