Jean Marie Maurice Schérer or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer, known as Éric Rohmer (21 March 1920[a] – 11 January 2010), was a French film director, film critic, journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and teacher.

Rohmer was the last of the post-World War II French New Wave directors to become established. He edited the influential film journal Cahiers du cinéma from 1957 to 1963, while most of his colleagues—among them Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut—were making the transition from critics to filmmakers and gaining international attention.

Rohmer gained international acclaim around 1969 when his film My Night at Maud's was nominated at the Academy Awards. He won the San Sebastián International Film Festival with Claire's Knee in 1971 and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Green Ray in 1986. Rohmer went on to receive the Venice Film Festival's Career Golden Lion in 2001.

After Rohmer's death in 2010, his obituary in The Daily Telegraph described him as "the most durable filmmaker of the French New Wave", outlasting his peers and "still making movies the public wanted to see" late in his career.

Rohmer was born Jean-Marie Maurice Schérer (or Maurice Henri Joseph Schérer) in Nancy (also listed as Tulle), Meurthe-et-Moselle department, Lorraine, France, the son of Mathilde (née Bucher) and Lucien Schérer. Rohmer was a Catholic. He was secretive about his private life and often gave different dates of birth to reporters. He fashioned his pseudonym from the names of two famous artists: actor and director Erich von Stroheim and writer Sax Rohmer, author of the Fu Manchu series. Rohmer was educated in Paris and received an advanced degree in history, though he seemed equally interested and learned in literature, philosophy, and theology.

In 1950 Rohmer made his first 16mm short film, Journal d'un scélérat. The film starred writer Paul Gégauff and was made with a borrowed camera. By 1951 Rohmer had a bigger budget provided by friends and shot the short film Présentation ou Charlotte et son steak. The 12-minute film was co-written by and starred Jean-Luc Godard. The film was not completed until 1961. In 1952 Rohmer began collaborating with Pierre Guilbaud on a one-hour short feature, Les Petites Filles modèles, but the film was never finished. In 1954 Rohmer made and acted in Bérénice, a 15-minute short based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe. In 1956 Rohmer directed, wrote, edited and starred in La Sonate à Kreutzer, a 50-minute film produced by Godard. In 1958 Rohmer made Véronique et son cancre, a 20-minute short produced by Chabrol.

Chabrol's company AJYM produced Rohmer's feature directorial debut, The Sign of Leo (Le Signe du lion) in 1959. In the film an American composer spends the month of August waiting for his inheritance while all his friends are on vacation and gradually becomes impoverished. It included music by Louis Sagver. The Sign of Leo was later recut and rescored by distributors when Chabrol was forced to sell his production company, and Rohmer disowned the recut version. In 1962 Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder co-founded the production company Les Films du Losange (they were later joined by Pierre Coltrell in the late 1960s). Les Films du Losange produced all of Rohmer's work (except his last three features produced by La Compagnie Eric Rohmer)

Filmography

Features

    The Sign of Leo (1962)
    The Collector (1967)
    My Night at Maud's (1969)
    Claire's Knee (1970)
    Love in the Afternoon (1972)
    The Marquise of O (1976)
    Perceval le Gallois (1978)
    Catherine de Heilbronn (1980, television film)
    The Aviator's Wife (1981)
    A Good Marriage (1982)
    Pauline at the Beach (1983)
    Full Moon in Paris (1984)
    The Green Ray (1986)
    Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987)
    Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (1987)
    Le trio en mi bémol (1988)
    A Tale of Springtime (1990)
    A Tale of Winter (1992)
    The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque (1993)
    Rendezvous in Paris (1995)
    A Summer's Tale (1996)
    Autumn Tale (1998)
    The Lady and the Duke (2001)
    Triple Agent (2004)
    The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (2007)