''Le Beau Mariage'' (''The Good Marriage'') is a 1982 French film 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 ...

, starring

Béatrice Romand Béatrice Romand (born 1952, Birkhadem, French Algeria) is a French actress. She is best known for her work with director Éric Rohmer in such films as '' Claire's Knee'', '' Love in the Afternoon'', ''A Good Marriage'', '' Le Rayon vert'' and '' ...

André Dussollier André Dussollier (born 17 February 1946) is a French actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as fi ...

Féodor Atkine Féodor Atkine is a French actor of Russian-Polish origin, born on 27 February 1948 in Paris. A screen performer, he has participated in numerous plays, films and television series in France and abroad. Life and career Féodor Atkine was born ...

. It is one of Rohmer's "comedies and proverbs" (''comédies et proverbes''). Its theme is a proverb from La Fontaine: "''Quel esprit ne bat la campagne? Qui ne fait château en Espagne?''" (that is, "Who doesn't daydream? Who doesn't build castles in the air?").

Synopsis

Sabine, an art history student, is growing tired of being the mistress of a married painter, Simon. She meets Edmond, handsome, young, rich and single, and declares that she is going to marry him.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on reviews from 12 critics. ''FrenchFilms.org'' gave it 4 out of 5. Tom Milne for Sight and Sound wrote: "It was perhaps high time that one of the delightful women who have led Rohmer's heroes such a teasing dance was put in her place."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' gave it 4.5 out of 5 and wrote: "The scope of Le Beau Mariage is limited, but everything within it is well-defined and magically, unexpectedly, illuminating."

Release

The film is available in the US via the

Xfinity Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the c ...

streaming service.

References

External links

* 1982 films 1982 comedy-drama films French comedy-drama films Films directed by Éric Rohmer Films produced by Margaret Ménégoz 1980s French films {{1980s-France-film-stub