Éric Rohmer, Alain Robbe-Grillet : fantasmatic journey

Abstract

In this article, we study the relationship between Alain Robbe-Grillet and Éric Rohmer’s works through the problematic of fantasy. Even though Robbe-Grillet’s films seem to be the opposite extreme of the ones of the director of the « Nouvelle vague », we will see that both authors share notable similarities. Indeed, both Robbe-Grillet and Rohmer focus on the world of dream and fantasy in films in which the notion of reality is questioned. Through the study of figures like the « frivolous girl », we will also focus on the treatment of stereotypes, the figurations of the imaginary without which fantasy may not exist. Eventually, we will treat the problem (thematically as well as aesthetically) of time and space’s derealization, the novelistic adaptations of Rohmer being the echo, with its claim of artificiality, of Robbe-Grillet’s films.