Since I'm thinking about them at the moment I thought I'd post my feelings on the films I've seen so far. I haven't seen Love In The Afternoon yet, so I can't comment on that right now.
I was thinking how the main theme of all the films seems to be one of judgement, or of making assumptions of others, and that these judgements ultimately tell the audience more about the character making them than the person that they are being made about.
The programme on My Night At Maud's and the Rohmer interview on La Collectioneuse talk about the main structure of the Moral Tales as being of someone who is with one woman, who leaves. That person then meets another woman who challenges his morals or captures his attention, but in the end he returns to the original woman.
It is fascinating to see how a simple set of circumstances described above can be imagined in so many different ways, using so many different styles of filming, and with so many different reactions of the characters to the similar situation.
The main male characters in Bakery Girl of Monceau and Suzanne's Career seem very full of themselves. In Bakery Girl it seems like the boy treats the bakery girl almost like an object with no life of her own outside of her encounters with him. The girl in Suzanne's Career has a world beyond the narrator's, but we are so much in his point of view that we perceive her as an independent character but tainted with the narrator's almost irrational hatred of her for her actions. The more she shows herself to be a person acting with her own motivations, the more she is detested by the young man.
It is fascinating to see that throughout the Moral Tales we are given a very male view of women. The female characters are purposefully left mysterious and unknowable. On the occasions when they try to explain themselves their comments are ignored or misinterpreted by the male characters.
Far from being an attack on women, I feel this is trying to suggest how difficult it is to understand others. The most worrying thought I had when watching the films is wondering how the women are perceiving the men - sometimes I got so caught up in the films that I didn't want the women to judge the men as harshly as they were judging her - I didn't want her to get caught up in their games.
Beyond the women the films often show that men often don't understand each other or use each other, such as Vidal using Jean-Louise in My Night At Maud's, Bertrand and Guillame's and Adrien and Daniel's barely concealed contempt towards each other in Suzanne's Career and La Collectioneuse. So I think the lack of communication is not just between men and women but between all individuals.
It perhaps shows how an attack on a woman for being a woman is the easy way out for a mind confused by their feelings towards a person. Perhaps any 'ism' comes about because of a combination of fear of, and fascination with, the unknown.
Perhaps in order to understand the unknowable is why judgements are made about actions others take, and people actively try to mould the reality of events to their own perceptions of what they believe to be happening, it makes it easier than trying to understand people's actions outside of how it impacts on you personally, so for example Haydée is constantly attacked for her 'loose' behaviour by the two guys or Gilles isn't good enough for Claire in Jerome's opinion, Suzanne has become a loose woman according to Bertrand. All are judgements that however close they might come to the 'truth' of a situation allow the characters making them to justify their actions, or justify their writing off of another person as someone unworthy of their attention.
What I like about the Moral Tales is that there are many different takes on this set of ideas. You have the nasty take that treats other people like dirt, or like chess pieces that the narrator moves around without thought to them having a life of their own. I think that would describe Bakery Girl, Suzanne and La Collectioneuse.
Then there are judgements and misinterpretations made by people sensitive to the idea that others are doing the same thing, or at least that other people are leading their own lives outside of their interactions with them. That would seem to describe My Night At Maud's and Claire's Knee.
I haven't yet seen Love In The Afternoon, so I'm not sure where this would fit in. It seems that a set of morals that you work out for yourself are fine but the problems come when you try to impose your morals onto other people.
So far I think all the films are great. I particularly love My Night At Maud's and Claire's Knee though because the characters are much more likeable as they grapple with the issues. I found La Collectioneuse almost painful to watch as it takes the concealed hostility and lack of care for another person to nasty extremes, somewhat like a psychological Salo, but it does have the most supreme moment in all the films so far when Haydée brings Adrien in for a kiss only to wipe her hands dry on his shirt! It reminds me of the scene between Theresa Russell and Art Garfunkle on the staircase in Bad Timing where she tells him to screw her if thats what he wants. If he was a more decent person he would leave and then their relationship would still have a chance, but he decides to have sex with her, proving to her that he only cares about her as an object and not as a lover. His short termism, his giving in to sexual urges has destroyed any respect Theresa Russell's character has for him, and therefore their relationship, even if it pains her (and drives her to despair) to realise it.
The moment in La Collectioneuse is similar as Haydée realises that he hates her, but his morals don't prevent him from grabbing a quick snog if it is offered! She quite literally wipes her hands of him!
Perhaps this is similar to the ending of Contempt where the woman makes the first move and shows that she is leaving the man through a great gesture (in Contempt it is Bardot's swimming off nude), leaving the man to stroke his own ego (amongst other things!) by making his own ineffectual (because it is only done for his benefit after the fact) parting gesture - in Contempt it is Paul's visualisation of the car crash (its obvious fakness showing it as a work of his imagination - and perhaps how bad a writer Paul really is!), and in La Collectioneuse it is Adrien driving off and leaving Haydée, as if she was desperate to be with him anyway!
I thought that it was strange that La Collectioneuse and My Night At Maud's should be in the order they are in, because looking at the the films in the above way La Collectioneuse seems to fit more with the first two films. However with My Night At Maud's coming third, then La Collectioneuse it feels like it is a warning to all those charmed by Maud's that there is another side to the coin where a pair can find each other fascinating but in a mutally destructive way.
I also found the heavy narration in La Collectioneuse going through my mind while watching Claire's Knee. In that film the character is not so cruel, but every once in a while and especially when Claire comes into the film I found myself wondering what a voiceover of what was going through his mind would be saying. Would he be calling Claire a slut, but is just better at controlling (concealing) his contempt or feelings of moral superiority than Adrien could?
Another thing I thought about Claire's Knee was how Jerome and Aurora seem very similar to the scheming pair in Dangerous Liaisons, except they aren't out to destroy others, but do use them for material or in a wager. They have casual fun with children just entering the adult world, with little thought to the consequences it seems. That is similar to the couple in Dangerous Liaisons, although there is no suggestion that Jerome or Aurora in Claire's Knee have any malice in their actions, in fact they barely have a plan in what they intend to do. However coming after La Collectioneuse where Adrien wants to abdicate from all responsibility and reveals his cruel side in his boredom, you worry about the older character's motives in Claire's Knee.
I think the character of Laura in Claire's Knee is magnificent since she remains fully in control of the situation with Jerome in the early part of the film, and is very coherent in expressing her way of thinking. It makes me wonder whether Jerome diverts his attention to Claire because she is an easier target in the sense that she does not seem as intellectual in her response to the world, and has made a bad choice in Gilles already. I found some uncomfortable parallels to Fat Girl while considering Claire and Laura. Claire seems much more worldly but turns out to be more fragile, while Laura is overlooked yet seems more capable with dealing with other people's advances.
Another interesting thing about the Moral Tales series is how the 'framing' woman slowly disappears throughout the film. She is very present in Bakery Girl (with the excuse of spraining her ankle keeping her out of the frame), Suzanne in a way is both the framing and the main girl since she is with other men at the beginning and end of the film and the main part is with Bertrand, making it a story of not being happy with a person, but being even less so when you see them happy with others! Of course Francoise is at the beginning and end of Maud's, but the title and the enormous length of the scene at Maud's apartment make her the central figure
(am I wrong in thinking that it was Francoise who had the affair with Maud's husband, and that was what she was worried Jean-Louise had found out at the end of the film?)
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Then however the framing women disappear - Carole is at the beginning of La Collectioneuse, but we only get a telephone call at the end of the film to signify Adrian going to her. Lucinde only appears as a photograph in Claire's Knee, while Aurora takes over the entire film, not just the middle and Claire and Laura are used as pawns in Jerome and Aurora's relationship.
Does this suggest the 'framing' women are moving further and further from the minds of the men in the films? Compared to Barbet Schroeder's character in Bakery Girl, when his whole motivation and voice over is about Sylvie, Jerome seems to hardly think of Lucinde and indeed his talk of how the marriage is taking place because they are used to each other, rather than in love suggests she hasn't captured his imagination in the way that the women in the film will.
He's definitely got a talent for unorthodox and idiosyncratic opinions.