Le Rayon Vert is a cinematic portrait of fear, anxiety and depression, I’m convinced it was made for the INFJ personality. Delphine, the protagonist, is a very relatable person because she is all of us in our most fragile state of mind. Éric Rohmer masterfully conveyed her loneliness and introversion with long shots of her walking, through her clothes (wc appears to be an important representation of her mood?), with shots of her hiding in books and gazing into the horizon.
I identify with her A LOT, as an introvert and as someone who’s suffering from crippling anxiety and depression. The uncomfortable episodes of her squirming through awkward conversations with total strangers, feeling disconnected even though she’s around people, an entire anti-loneliness brigade attempting to help her out and offer her unsolicited advice but incapable of truly listening and understanding and spending more time with minor characters to avoid discussions about life and the future with her peers are scenes I’m especially familiar with. It understands how stressful it is to see someone so glutted with fear she can’t even enjoy a vacation as one normally would by trying new things and meeting new people and it empathizes with anyone who always feels like a burden to others and couldn’t help but think that they wouldn’t wanna go on a holiday with them. Watch this (pls) and cry a cathartic cry because you can’t put into words how accurate and relatable this is; to feel like you have it all and be in healthy shape but lose your life because of the inexplicable fear and inability to just "go for it" and interact with the world. Ugh and the scene where she struggles to articulate why she’s vegetarian is me every time someone expects me to explain or defend my beliefs!
If I could stuff this film in everyone’s Christmas stocking, I definitely would! Every shot was well thought out. The colors are right, the emotions are right, everything is right. I’m a big fan of the unexpected cut off scenes that made it feel almost like a diary? And guess what? The entire dialogue is improvised by the brilliant Marie Rivière (who played Delphine and who also worked with Rohmer in Autumn Tale and 4 aventures de Reinette et Mirabelle) and you can really tell that Rohmer trusted her completely. Here is an excerpt from a Notebook article when they interviewed her for the new DVD release:
Notebook: There are some incredibly moving scenes in The Green Ray (Le Rayon Vert) where Delphine starts to cry. Do you find it easy to cry on camera?
Rivière: I cry so much in the film! But, you know, each time is very different. The first time is when Delphine is in the garden with her friends in the suburbs of Paris. I'm crying while sat on some steps. He wanted me to cry at that moment. He wanted me to say my lines, and then cry. And so I did. Then, in the countryside in Cherbourg, it was different. We had shot the scene with the lunch where I'm saying that I don't eat meat. He had secretly told the other actors to just keep asking me questions about my vegetarianism and stress me out so the improvisation could take place. Otherwise I could have just said I don't eat meat and ended it there. I was obliged to answer these questions. It created cinema, you know?
The next day, we went wandering in the countryside. He didn't know the place at all. It was him, Françoise, the two girls, the camera and the sound. He told me to just walk where I wanted to. I came to a fence, which you can see in the film. So I turned around and started to walk back. And I just started to look at him for direction. He made a sign for me to keep walking. I didn't know where I could go! I walked down another path and they all followed me. And then there was another fence which was on the edge of a field. I was basically trapped—I couldn't go anywhere else. I turned to the camera. The team was looking at me, and I could see that Rohmer was waiting for something to happen. He made a gesture with his hand for the team to stay still and keep shooting. I then understood that I had to find something. I knew that this was was coming after the scene of the lunch. I suddenly felt the exclusion, both mine and the character's. I paused. I knew he was expecting something from me. So I gave him my tears
Ugh. In the words of Thorgy Thor, aw jesus, gross. Anything that inspires and anyone who excels I automatically hate because I am an insecure pot lid who can't do anything jk
Rohmer has the power to manifest pure humanity as seen through this and his other films like My Night at Maud’s, Claire’s Knee and La Collectionneuse. And Rivière omfg how dare you look into my soul, shove in your hand through my chest and brutally squeeze my heart like a stress ball! No other combo has accurately captured the feeling of existential dread in its gentlest manner (and presented aesthetically) like they did in this film and it fucked me up.
Side note: Young Sheldon is pretty decent and happy 4 years my star-spangled Johnny! <3
