Decoding L’Ami de mon amie’s Filmic Space

Abstract

In the mid-20th century, France lived a cultural shift that announced a radical change in social life, reflected in movements like the Nouvelle Vague in cinema and the ville nouvelle in urban planning. Eric Rohmer embraced these ideas in his film L’Ami de mon amie, filming in Cergy Pontoise’s modern urbanity and Bofill’s Le Belvedère building. Rohmer classifies cinematic space into three categories: architectural space, the real built environment; pictorial space, its two-dimensional representation; and filmic space, constructed in the spectator’s mind. This paper decodes L’Ami de mon amie filmic space chronologically and then through its architectural elements, revealing how Rohmer intertwines spatial perception with emotions. By employing image and movement, he dissolves traditional dichotomies, such as interior versus exterior or love versus hate, crafting a cinematic language that unites architecture and emotion.

Keywords

• Éric Rohmer
• perspective restitution
• filmic space
• architecture and cinema
• Cergy-Pontoise
• ville nouvelle