''Suzanne's Career'' (french: La Carrière de Suzanne) is a 1963 French

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film written and directed by

Éric Rohmer Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (; 21 March 192011 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher. Rohmer was the last of the post-World ...

. It is the second instalment in Rohmer's "

Six Moral Tales 6 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 6 or six may also refer to: * AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era * 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era * The month of June Science * Carbon, the element with atomic number 6 * 6 Hebe, an asteroid People ...

" series. A flirty Guillaume seduces a woman named Suzanne, which becomes problematic for his friendship with the shy Bertrand, especially when Guillaume's and Suzanne's relationship becomes strained.

Plot

The film takes place in a time of turmoil in France, due to the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

and the

Algerian War The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...

. Two students in Paris, Bertrand (the first person narrator telling us this story from some point in the future), timid, young, and in pharmacy school and the brash Guillaume, who is something of a womanizer, encounter the independent and articulate Suzanne at a café. She has a full-time job and is quite independent, living alone and doing whatever she pleases. Guillaume uses his wit and charm to flirt with and seduce her. She quickly succumbs to Guillaume's coarse advances. After bedding her, he becomes bored, but continues to lead her on despite complaining about her and flirting with other women. Bertrand believes that Suzanne must lack self-respect in order to let herself be treated so poorly, but remains silent and continues to abet Guillaume's antics. In an effort to regain Guillaume's attention, Suzanne cultivates an interest in Bertrand, spending what little money she has on him. Bertrand ends up despising her even more after he and Guillaume ruin Suzanne financially. Throughout, Bertrand has a crush on her more conventionally pretty Irish friend, Sophie, who vigorously defends Suzanne from Bertrand's criticism. After a party, Suzanne has no money to get home so Bertrand reluctantly says she can sleep in the chair in his room. He means this literally, taking the bed himself as he has an exam in the morning. The next day, he returns to his room to escort Suzanne out only to find money missing from his room. Bertrand blames Suzanne, even though both Suzanne and Guillaume had a chance to take the money, but Sophie thinks it more likely he was robbed earlier by Guillaume. A year later, when Bertrand is swimming with Sophie, they meet Suzanne with her new fiancé, who is handsome, well-off and charming. The couple are happy together (while Bertrand informs us his relationship with Sophie was in the process of ending) and Bertrand admits he had misjudged Suzanne and that, whether purposely or not, she won because she took away any right he had to pity her and in the end, that is the best revenge.

Cast

* Catherine Sée as Suzanne Hocquetot * Christian Charrière as Guillaume Peuch-Drumond * Philippe Beuzen as Bertrand, the narrator * Diane Wilkinson as Sophie * Jean-Claude Biette as Jean-Louis *

Patrick Bauchau Patrick Nicolas Jean Sixte Ghislain Bauchau (born 6 December 1938) is a Belgian actor best known for his roles in the films ''A View to a Kill'', '' The Rapture'' and ''Panic Room'', as well as the TV shows '' The Pretender'' and '' House''. ...

as Frank * Pierre Cottrell as art lover/party guest *

Jean-Louis Comolli Jean-Louis Comolli (30 July 1941 – 19 May 2022) was a French writer, editor, and film director. Career Comolli was editor in chief of ''Cahiers du cinéma'' from 1966 to 1978, during which period he wrote the influential essays "Machines of t ...

as party guest

References

External links

* * *
''Eric Rohmer: Blueprints for a Brilliant Oeuvre''
– an essay by

Ginette Vincendeau Ginette Vincendeau (born 1948) is a French-born British-based academic who is a professor of film studies at King's College London. Early life and education Vincendeau was educated at the Lycée Lamartine and Lycée Sophie Germain in Paris, ...

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

1963 films 1963 comedy-drama films 1960s French-language films Films directed by Éric Rohmer Films produced by Barbet Schroeder French comedy-drama films 1960s French films {{1960s-France-film-stub