The Romance of Astrea and Celadon

Star Review

David Parkinson looks at Eric Rohmer's last film.

Several highbrow critics frowned at Eric Rohmer’s adaptation of Honoré d’Urfé’s little-read pastoral novel, L’Astrée. They couldn’t understand why an 88 year-old auteur making his supposedly final film would want to dwell on nymphs, shepherds and druids in fifth-century Gaul rather than sign off among his usual coterie of chatteringly lovesick juveniles. In fact, that’s exactly what Rohmer has done, with his cast of minstrels and maidens proving how little basic human emotions have changed over the cynical centuries. Moreover, Rohmer has also indulged in one last nouvelle vague joke, as he borrows the visual tropes of d’Urfé’s 17th-century artistic contemporaries Poussain and Lorrain to create a bucolic neverland that’s as enticingly fantastical as those of the Gaul of Asterix’s creators, Goscinny and Uderzo. Few filmmakers have so consistently revealed psychological truth behind impassioned folly with such acuity; even fewer have retained such individuality over a career spanning 50 years.

David Parkinson on 10th December 2008

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Film Description

Celadon the shepherd and Astrea the shepherdess are united in pure love.

Misled by a jealous suitor, Astrea orders Celadon to stay away from her for ever more. In his despair, he jumps into a rushing river. She thinks he is dead, but he is secretly rescued by nymphs. Crazed with love and despair, coveted by the nymphs, surrounded by rivals and compelled to dress up as a woman in order to approach his beloved, how can he get her to recognize him without disobeying her?

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