Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987)
"L'ami de mon amie" (original title)

In Paris outskirts Blanche, a young clerk, befriends Lea, a girl livelier than she is. Lea is going steady with Fabien who is a friend to Alexandre who is going steady with Adrienne but is ... See full summary »

Director:

Eric Rohmer

Writer:

Eric Rohmer

Stars:

Emmanuelle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir, Anne-Laure Meury

2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Emmanuelle Chaulet	...	Blanche
Sophie Renoir	...	Lea
Anne-Laure Meury	...	Adrienne
Eric Viellard	...	Fabien
François-Eric Gendron	...	Alexandre

Storyline

In Paris outskirts Blanche, a young clerk, befriends Lea, a girl livelier than she is. Lea is going steady with Fabien who is a friend to Alexandre who is going steady with Adrienne but is however loved by Blanche. Somehow a way has to be found to get out of this emotional chaos!

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Plot Keywords:

friend | suburb | student | office worker | woods | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

15 July 1988 (USA)

Also Known As:

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend

Filming Locations:

Cergy, Val-d'Oise, France

Box Office

Gross:

$823,243 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films du Losange, Investimage, Compagnie Eric Rohmer (CER)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sixth in Eric Rohmer's series of Comedies et Proverbes.

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Connections

Follows A Good Marriage (1982)

User Reviews

Boring and tedious

I must not be an Eric Rohmer fan. This is the second of his movies I've seen, after A Summer's Tale, which I disliked although I'm a big fan of Melvil Poupaud. Both movies are trite and tedious.

Boyfriends & Girlfriends is a boring movie with boring, shallow people talking nonstop about themselves, which, from what I've read, is Rohmer's specialty. When I ask myself, Why would he be interested in people like that? I have no answer. Maybe he identifies with them. Maybe he finds them fascinating.

I love movies in which nothing much happens except character development, but there has to be something interesting about the characters. The most interesting thing in this movie is an unnaturally clear, turquoise-colored, antiseptic lake that a couple go windsurfing on. I've never seen a lake like that in my life. These shallow people live in a sterile, artificial city that looks like a brand new shopping mall (and it's a real place, not made up for the movie), so maybe the lake is artificial too, like a gigantic swimming pool on a golf course.

Everything about this movie screams emptiness and artificiality, so at least it is consistent. Maybe vacant people in a vacant city symbolize something important to Rohmer and his fans, but they just bore me. I'm very interested in lots of things, but spending almost two hours watching petulant, spoiled, shallow people irritate and bore each other isn't one of them.

I'm giving it a star for consistency, which alone is enough to lift it a little way off the bottom of the barrel.