The cinema of Eric Rohmer (born Maurice Scherer) has stayed uniformly, if not alarmingly, consistent. Whereas the obsessions and preoccupations of a Godard or a Chabrol have mutated over the years, Rohmer's song has remained the same, from his earliest shorts to his latest "Tales of the Four Seasons" series: compact narratives keyed to a particular part of France at a particular time of year, centered on the moral/psychological quandaries of beautiful men and women at various stages of life. What has changed dramatically is the popular perception of his work, at least stateside. With the exception of Rivette, Rohmer was initially seen as the most rarefied of the new wavers, someone whose movies gave all but the most devoted art-house patrons a case of hives (as in Gene Hackman's... More >>>