The erstwhile film critic Eric Rohmer (1920-2010) pursued his own independent line while achieving consistent box-office success with Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night With Maud,1969), Clare's Knee (1970) and L'Amoure l'Apres-Midi (Love in the Afternoon,1972). These films formed part of a series, Six Contes Morales (Six Moral Tales) - sophisticate, witty portrayals of modern relationships whose male protagonists are all torn between fidelity to a long-standing relationship and finding romantic fulfillment in a new one. After two decorative period films, The Marquise of O,1976) and 1978's Perceval le Gallois, Rohmer embarked on a fresh series, Comedies et Proverbes, purporting, in the style of the romantic writer Alfred de Musset, to be moral illustrations of popular proverbs.
The anecdotes were rife with humor and the human drama. The series included La Femme de l'Aviateur (The Aviator's Wife,1981) 1982's A Good Marriage, Pauline a la Plage (Pauline at the Beach,1983) and Full Moon in Paris (1984). Rohmer has proved one of the most consistent, gratifying individual and perceptive of French filmmakers in the Seventies and Eighties.