Le Beau Mariage

The second in Rohmer's series of 'Comedies and Proverbs' tells the cautionary tale of a girl who impulsively decides to marry, picks out a suitable mate in the conviction that he finds her equally eligible, and then suffers agonies of humiliation when she discovers that he does not. Funny, touching and beautifully acted, Le Beau Mariage is acutely exact both psychologically and socially, not least in the way the troubled heroine shuttles between the busy highways of Paris and the ancient cobbled streets of Le Mans, with the different settings ironically reflecting the paradox that this paragon of women's lib chooses to see liberation as means to allowing her to live like a Victorian lady of leisure.