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	Boyfriends and Girlfriends Emmanuelle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir Orion Home Video average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In typical Rohmer fashion, the film is heavy on dialogue and light on action. By stripping away the veneer--no unusual camera work, no elaborate settings, no pounding soundtrack--Rohmer is able to effectively focus on the empty lives of the modern suburbanites (they all live in a spanking-clean suburb of Paris, Clergy-Pontoise, where the sparseness of the apartments and streets echoes their lives) and his New Wave influences show in the simple theme, the fickle nature of the heart. Yet his characters are immensely likable and their situations comical and ordinary enough for the viewer to relate to. This is an excellent entry into the world of Eric Rohmer for the New Wave neophyte and a refreshing, lighter outing for those who are already fans. --Jenny Brown

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"L' Ami de mon amie"

This review refers to the Fox Lorber DVD World Class Cinema DVD Edition of "Boyfriends and Girlfriends"...

The final entry in Eric Rohmer's series of "Comedies and Proverbs" opens with this simple statement..."My friends' friends are my friends". A simple enough meaning..unless..we are talking matters of the heart. Then things could get a little complicated, as they do in this sweet and endearing French romantic comedy.

"Boyfriends and Girlfriends" from 1987 is one of those wonderful films that has staying power no matter how old it gets. It's a film about relationships...whether they be of a romantic nature or an enduring friendship, we see that times may change, but love, in any language(but especially in French), will always win out.

So in our little circle of friends in this story, we have Blanche and Lea, two young women, who although very different from each other, have become fast friends. There's the handsome and popular Alexandre, who Blanche has her eye on, but seems to be getting no where with, and last but certainly not least is Lea's boyfriend Fabien. Lea's and Fabien's romance is a little rocky, on the outs one second and hopelessly in love the next.
So far so good?....Now the fun begins...The gals tempt the fates,each devloping an attachment to the other's love, (this is where the matters of the heart get a little complicated), and who will wind up with who is anybody's guess!

The young stars(including Emmanuelle Chaulet and Sophie Renoir) are enchanting and will captivate your heart, as they try to work things out for themselves. Eric Rohmer's subtle wittiness, and his feel for human nature will leave you smiling.

Fox Lorber has brought to us some fabulous films in it's World Class Cinema Collection. This is one of them. The DVD includes filmographies, and English subtitles(which do not have the option to turn off).

Merci and enjoy...Laurie

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A mess of relationships and mistaken situations, that somehow ends turning into an excellent movie...

"Boyfriends and Girlfriends" (or in its original French title, "L'ami de mon amie", that is, "The friend of my friend") is the sixth film in Eric Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" series, and my favourite so far. This movie is entertaining, and even somewhat funny at times, but it also makes you think about the nature of love, friendship and relationships, giving the spectator food for thought regarding those subjects.

The proverb on which ""Boyfriends and Girlfriends" is based is "Les amis de mes amis sont mes amis" ("the friends of my friends are my friends"). That proverb makes reference to the plot of this movie, something you will only understand fully once you finish watching it. However, I can give you some hints beforehand :)

The two main characters are Blanche (Emmanuelle Chaulet) and Leah (Sophie Renoir), two very different girls that strike a friendship. Blanche is shy, responsible and quiet, she has no boyfriend but likes Alexandre (François-Eric Gendron), an acquaintance of Leah's boyfriend, Fabien (Eric Viellard). Leah, on the other hand, is an outgoing and unconventional woman, accustomed to doing exactly what she feels like doing. She likes her boyfriend, but doesn't think their relationship will last, because they are too different.

Leah wants to help Blanche to begin a relationship with Alexandre, but Alexandre doesn't seem interested in Blanche, even though he pays a lot of attention to Leah, who happens to be exactly the kind of girl he is fond of. Blanche, on the other hand, slowly but steadily starts to realise that she has a lot in common with Fabien, who seems to like her a lot, even too much, if that is possible.

Do those hints seem interesting? Because, truth to be told, they lead to a mess of relationships and mistaken situations, something that somehow ends turning into an excellent movie, with plenty of the kind of dialogues that make Rohmer's films so unique. In my opinion, this is one of Rohmer's best films, and that is no small feat. Highly recommended!

Belen Alcat

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Essential French cinema: Rohmer's 'L'Ami de mon amie.'

Éric Rohmer (1920) first challenged traditional Hollywood cinema with his French New Wave cycle of films, "Six Moral Tales," which he completed in 1972 before commencing another six-film cycle, "Comedies and Proverbs," each based on a different proverb.

For those new to Rohmer, this film is an excellent starting point. Based on the proverb, "my friends' friends are my friends," Boyfriends and Girlfriends (L'Ami de mon amie, also known as My Girlfriend's Boyfriend) (1987) is the final film in Rohmer's insightful "Comedies & Proverbs" six-film series. It tells the delightful story of beautiful and conservative, 24-year-old Blanche (Emmanuelle Chaulet), who is befriended by the sensual 22-year-old Léa (Sophie Renoir) in the town of Cergy-Pontoise near Paris. Blanche is interested in Alexandre (François-Eric Gendron), who hardly notices her, and Léa is restless in her relationship with her boyfriend Fabien (Eric Viellard). Their lives become complicated when Fabien takes an interest in Blanche, and Alexandre takes an interest in Léa; Blanche and Léa decide to exchange boyfriends. Rich in relationship dialogue, like many of Rohmer's films, Boyfriends and Girlfriends illustrates how the course of love never did run smooth, particularly for his young characters. Hopefully Criterion will remaster Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" series, and then offer it as a boxed collection similar its "Six Moral Tales" boxed set.

G. Merritt

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Learn Everything About Dating in One Movie

This movie is great. The hot girl you like, is completely disinterested in you, while her dorky friend, who you barely notice, pines away dreaming about marrying you. Your best friend, has a nice girlfriend who he treats like crap, and he 2x's her when he lands the girl YOU like. Finally, you realize its the nice girl you should be dating as you get to know her. Eric Roehmer must have gone to my high school! No wait! This is the same story since the beginning of time. Great movie. He left out the part about when you finally meet the right girl, every hot girl you missed out on comes back, or better yet, your girlfriends hot sister, and wants you to cheat on her. Then when you wont, she lies and says you tried to your girlfriend. Ha ha. Biatches are SOOO catty... meeeeooowww. .. thats MY movie. This movie is as real as it gets about relationships.

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Engaging comedy by Rohmer

A young woman, Blanche (the lovely Emmanuelle Chaulet), works in the City Hall of a trendy New Town near Paris (somewhat to his discredit, Rohmer's films tend to occur almost always in middle class and upper middle class milieus, seldom in working class neighborhoods and never in the immigrants building projects). Having recently arrived there, Blanche lives quite a lonely life, until she becomes friends with another young woman, Lea (Sophie Renoir), through which she met her boyfriend Fabien (Eric Viellard), and an acquaintance of the couple, Alexandre (François-Eric Gendron). Basically, the movie follows the time honored plot of exchange of relationships. A is with B, and C with D, but then A will start a liaison with D, which will make C jealous, and would start going with B in revenge and so forth. The title in French is a pun: the boyfriend of my friend would (could) become my boyfriend. Rohmer is known to be a political conservative, but here he is hardly a moralist, since he examines the sexual freedom of today's youth without condemning it. The movie may seem to some to be slow and talky, but these characters are believable and appealing (if somewhat shallow and a bit better looking than ordinary).

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reviews: page 1, 2

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