The Sign of Leo (Le Signe du lion)

The first feature length film from Éric Rohmer has little indication of what the director would bring to his later career, and more reminiscences of who first inspired his own; Alfred Hitchcock.  “Sign of the Lion” arrived in the first breaking of the French Nouvelle…

theriverjordan

Rohmer's first film feels closer to the Italian Neorealism of Umberto D. by De Sica or even to something like Bresson's Pickpocket than to anything the French New-Wave master would later create: a monocular street story with a documentary style and very little dialogue on…

Nico Vargas

As my first French film I must say you French people really just be built different huh

Steven Wallace

Eric Rohmer's first feature, and such a commercial flop that it was almost Eric Rohmer's *last* feature. rough portrait of learned helplessness disguised as "luck" hits a little too close to home, an unexpected story from a class of filmmakers who i characterize by their…

davidehrlich

It feels more like a Chabrol film than a Rohmer one and it is intriguing to observe how the desire to observe French youth feels more like an outside proposition than in the much older Rohmer movies from the 80s/90s, more like a concession to watch New Wave movies were…

Filipe Furtado

Éric Rohmer's first feature length foray into the French New Wave, Le Signe du Lion is a sad tale based on the old adage "Don't count your chickens before they hatch". Pierre is woken by a telegram informing him of the passing of his aunt and he quickly jumps to the…

Graham

Has a literary, realist streak that Rohmer would subsequently develop into a singular voice but here feels, for all its relative stuffiness, like his most "New Wave" feature in that it feels defined by sublimated references and a streetwise sense of constant motion. This…

Jake Cole

An unfinished sonata, a lost inheritance, frustrated expectations towards your future, living under the sign of the sun on summer might be overwhelming. Drifting aimlessly on Paris' streets trying to find solace, but while the rest of the world seems to be living as…

Diogo Serafim

Rohmer's first feature is not nearly as elaborate or lively as his later work, but it sometimes felt like an interesting predecessor to his Moral Tales series in particular. It gets kind of drab at times, but the wandering, unfettered nouvelle vague style in charming…

Henri