La règle du je

Cited as “the best filmmaker of his generation” by directors ranging from Akerman to Benoît Jacquot, Philippe Garrel remains an alluring, somewhat enigmatic figure; this rare look at his world and his art was made right after the completion of his great “autobiographical tetralogy” that ended with The Phantom Heart.

An all night party in a building on the outskirts of Paris provides the setting of this provocative French meditation on life and waiting. As the title states, the film centers on seven main characters at the party. Each of them is privately waiting for something and all of them engage in conversations about the fundamental concerns of life, including love, sex, truth and responsibility. Among the seven are a pregnant woman waiting for her baby, a playboy, a gay man, and a young woman with poor taste in men. To make the film, director Francoise Etchegaray gave the actors a sense of who they were supposed to be and what they should do, placed them in a room, and let them improvise their dialog.

The making of Eric Rohmer's A Summer's Tale.