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(L'Amour, l'après-midi). Frédéric is the quintessential Rohmer protagonist: he has convinced himself that his comically consuming fantasies about the girls of Paris are a reflection of how much he loves his wife. But the last laugh is on us: Frédéric is right. "While American audiences may respond more easily to heroes who jump at a chance to live out their fantasies even if they make fools of themselves, Rohmer has the distinction of presenting people who are interesting for what they don't do and how they talk themselves out of it. While Frédéric goes further than his previous counterparts (he touches more than a knee!), the quiet determinism behind Rohmer's style, joined here to a chaste, functional visual style, leads to a paradoxical audience acceptance of an unimaginative view of life."