In the outskirts of Paris a young clerk called Blanche befriends Lea. Lea is going steady with Fabien who is a friend to Alexandre who is going steady with Adrienne but is however loved by Blanche. Somehow a way has to be found to get out of this emotional chaos.
“In Boyfriends and Girlfriends, Rohmer reduced the gap between the sublime and the pathetic that he had made one of the great principles of his cinema – or more exactly, to use Léa’s own words, between the ‘extraordinary’ and the ‘solid.’ It is in the acceptance of the solid (a less brilliant boy, a less romantic story) that the revelation of the extraordinary takes place. It is in the proximity of the pathetic (the meager popular distractions on the outskirts of the new towns) that the future lovers commune in the apprehension of the sublime.”
Antoine de Baecque & Noël Herpe1
“L’ami de mon amie can be appreciated as a huge description of how people occupy spare time, now dominant, in Western societies. From inconsequential games of seduction (Léa, Alexandre) to diverse sporting activities (Blanche, Fabien), the film presents the new narcissistic culture o the body in all its forms.
Alain Hertay2
“The only reason to see L'ami de mon amie is for Rohmer’s memorable use of an antiseptic, futuristic suburb of Paris called Cergy-Pontoise, the Antonioniesque landscape for the ’80s: sleek, white, full of malls and faux-historical architecture, and as vacant and sterile as the characters who populate it.”
Katherine Dieckmann3
