The Sign of Leo
(Le signe du lion)
Screening on Film
Directed by Eric Rohmer.
With Jess Hahn, Van Doude, Michèle Girardon.
France, 1959, 16mm, black & white, 102 min.
French with English subtitles.
With Jess Hahn, Van Doude, Michèle Girardon.
France, 1959, 16mm, black & white, 102 min.
French with English subtitles.
Eric Rohmer was the editor of the influential Cahiers du cinéma when he made this first full-length feature, a perceptive portrait of a good-natured but hopelessly irresponsible American composer living on the Left Bank in Paris. Assuming that he has inherited a fortune from his recently deceased aunt, he borrows money to hold a party—only to learn that the news is false and that he has lost everything. The film is notable for its detailed and vivid evocation of a Paris transformed by summer heat, American tourists, and the composer’s suddenly marginal position—all brilliantly captured by Nicholas Hayer’s camera. A seminal work of the New Wave and Fassbinder’s favorite film, The Sign of Leo is a powerful study of contemporary isolation.
