Last week, the Film Society of Lincoln Center at the Walter Reade theater kicked off its weeklong film festival celebrating the works of the late French director Eric Rohmer. Known for his thoughtful, stylishly restrained films focusing on relationships, in all their minutely detailed permutations, Rohmer, who died earlier this year at 89, was a celebrated auteur in French New Wave cinema; however, because his films are more heavy on talk rather than action, they can be an acquired taste for moviegoers.

Earlier today I checked out one of his offerings, Full Moon in Paris, which came out in 1984 and starred Pascale Ogier, who tragically died of a heart attack at the tender age of 25 the same year. I remember reading about this film way back when; virtually all of the articles eulogized the loss of Ogier whose promising film career was cut short by her death (which according to rumors may have been triggered by anorexia or a drug overdose). Whatever precipitated this lovely, ethereal actress’s demise, the European cinema was definitely weakened by this loss. Judgng by her work in Full Moon in Paris, Ogier, who would have turned 52 this year had she lived, could have had a very solid career.

Though not nearly as glamorous as Catherine Deneuve in her prime (but then who is?) or as chamleonic as Isabelle Huppert, the elfin Ogier (who was also the daughter of veteran French film actress Bulle Ogier) exuded a disarmingly natural, unaffected quality that made her self-absorbed recent college grad character in Full Moon in Paris a lot more likable than she would have been in lesser hands. The film’s plot centers on Ogier’s character, Louise, a trainee in an interior design firm, negotiating two apartments–one on her own in Paris and the other with her boyfriend in the suburbs outside the city. Remi (Tcheky Karyo), Louise’s stolid boyfriend, is displeased with this arrangement; he wants Louise to make a full-time commitment to him but the insouciant sprite with the New Wave hairdos and clothes (bestill my college memories) is not ready for that yet. She still wants to go out and party with her friends and dance the night away. How can she do that when her boyfriend wants to get up early and keep more regular hours? So Louise opts to keep her apartment in Paris where she can stay part-time and on those nights when she won’t bother Remi with her sometimes nocturnal schedule.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize this scenario is a disaster in the making. By the time Louise discovers that she no longer wants her part-time party life in Paris and that she’s ready to fully commit herself to Remi, he has moved on…with a friend of hers. Louise is crushed and at the film’s denouement, after recovering what is left from her ego, she has packed up her belongings and is ready to go back to her apartment in Paris. Her future with Remi is over but she is still young and full of hope with years of possibility stretching before her. It’s a shame that her portrayer didn’t share that with her. RIP Pascale Ogier.

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