What is love?
The day before yesterday we watched Le beau mariage by Eric Rohmer as a home video. The movie dates from 1981 and is very low-budget. As all Rohmers it is mainly conversation. Rohmer is like the small brother (actually he is older and his films are wiser as well) of Truffaut. Quite simple but still intellectual films.
The plot is really simple. A beautiful brunette in her early twenties (Béatrice Romand looks younger than she is) splits with her married painter boyfriend. She is sick of being only second choice. So she decides to marry. Very strange. She does not even know whom. But soon her friend introduces her to her cousin, a lawyer. From the beginning her friend makes clear that she is exactly her cousin's type. Dark hair, slim figure. Now she knows whom she will marry. She gives up her job and runs after him. It is like the Diary of a Seducer by Kierkegaard, but there it works and here not. Maybe men are better seducers. :)
She is so sure of herself but the guy does not respond. So finally she goes to see him in the office and he tells her that actually she is exactly his type of woman, but this is exactly the problem. The reason he puts forward that he has no time for a relationship and that he has to work on his career is of course bullshit. In fact he says no as she is trying too hard.
The quintessence for me is that it does not work as no love is involved. She is absolutely not in love with the guy. She is only acting rationally so she cannot expect that he will love her back. It is all too perfect. You cannot force love. Love is always a present, with something irrational or unpredictable. There is a very human aspect in love. We do not want to be overrun. We want to be respected, free to choose or at least we want to think that we have a free will.