The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque

1993 ‘L'Arbre, le Maire et la Médiathèque’ Directed by Éric Rohmer

The socialist mayor of a small village in France dreams of building an arts center but he runs up against some opposition.

Pascal Greggory Arielle Dombasle Fabrice Luchini Clémentine Amouroux François-Marie Banier Michel Jaouen Jean Parvulesco Galaxie Barbouth Jessica Schwing Raymonde Farau Manuella Hesse Solange Blanchet Mathe Pillaud Isabelle Prevost Michel Tisseau Jacky Brunet Martin De Courcel Jean-Claude Pubert Suzanne Thony Gaby Auguin Michel Bernard Rémy Rousseau Françoise Etchegaray

Alternative Titles

L'arbre, le maire et la médiathèque ou les sept hasards, Der Baum, der Bürgermeister und die Mediathek, A fa, a polgármester és a médiatár, L'albero, il sindaco e la mediateca, Drzewo, mer i mediateka, A Árvore, o Presidente e a Videoteca, El árbol, el alcalde y la mediateca, Les sept hasards

comedy

105 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Luke McCarthy

An expose on political ideology (right/left, conservative/liberal, city/country) written as a comedy of errors, putting forth a multitude of clashing viewpoints without ever clearly defining what is 'right' and what is 'wrong', Rohmer more interested in working through how these ideas are formed within our world, and how they seem to subtly interact within the broader political sphere. It helps that he brings in some of his most likable, talented actors to help sell a film which is essentially 80% political debate, the conversations here so intelligently rendered and elegantly articulated that the film's supposedly intellectual underpinnings are easy to fall into.
Was also struck by one very small scene which seems to reverberate throughout the entire film - as…
Review by Maxime_Gerin ★★★★★ 4

La façon dont Rohmer visite à travers un minuscule (éventuel) évènement la plupart des enjeux politiques de notre époque est étourdissante de brillance. Le conservatisme et le progressisme, la droite et la gauche, la médiatisation desdits enjeux, l'étalement urbain, la décentralisation des pouvoirs, l'état nourricier, l'absorption de la dissidence par le pouvoir, l'écologisme, etc., etc. Tout y est abordé de front, avec une pluralité de points de vue toute démocratique et une légèreté désarmante qui nous fait presque oublier la sériosité des sujets discourus. Les luttes de tous les personnages y sont présentées comme étant aussi futiles que vitales. Un tendre cynisme enveloppé de drôlerie.
Les meilleurs films de Rohmer donnent l'impression d'être à propos de tout; celui-ci l'est explicitement. Même ses habituels chassés-croisés amoureux y sont évoqués, très subtilement, en toile de fond.
Review by Bruno Andrade ★★★★★

La politique pour la politique c'est terminé. Les gens en ont marre des orateurs et de leurs manipulations.

O grande filme político dos anos 1990.
Review by Carlos Valladares ★★★★ 2

Echoing Mr. Penalosa: "There are many great conservative novelists, but only one great conservative filmmaker." And even so, you can't really tell, in Rohmer's capital-P Political film, that he's obviously on the side of the médiathèque: if they'd have built it, you could have seen a film like The Tree, the Mayor, and the Médiathèque, thus safeguarding its insights for future generations to easily enjoy. Now, it languishes in the apt obscurity accorded to such precious objects by Memory and History. Helas. Way of the world. Rohmerian dialogue of unresolved conflicts reach an apotheosis here. The only person who makes sense is the world's most precocious and least cloying 10-year-old; John Hughesians, take note; this is how you do youth.
A Rohmer musical number looks exactly like I'd imagined it: cool, a lil awkward, way out of its element, daft, and obsequiously, neurotically respectful of the integrity of space.
Review by Laurie Holden ★★★★½

the socialist mayor of a small French town, with the help of his contacts in Paris, wants to build a media library. he wants to establish a cultural heritage and preserve what's left of the the town's population. but the local teacher, who loves the town's landscape opposes the plan.
the film is not as simple as it might seem. it's ROHMER, after all! dialogue replaces action in both literal and metaphorical sense. it touches on various issues of the day, including the various divides that exist within thepolitical hemisphere. and the conversations are quite scintillating! (at least I thought so.) like other rohmer films, this is beautifully shot and truly captures the place as an anchor for larger concerns.
Review by Aret Frost ★★★★★ 1

Here are some notes I wrote to a couple of my friends on one of my favorite films ever. It’s been a while since my last viewing, but I figured I’d get some thoughts down on the occasion of Eric Rohmer’s Centennial. I saw this film twice in 2018, once at home in Torrance, CA and once at the French Institute Alliance Française in NYC, with the great Pascal Greggory in attendance.
Here’s something I said to Bill Krohn while meandering down Highland Ave. in Hollywood after getting out of a screening at the Egyptian, a few months after my first viewing of the Rohmer film (please excuse me for quoting myself…) - “While you can probably tell that the…
Review by Luis 1

Seguramente, la película clave para conocer la visión contemporánea de Rohmer sobre la política francesa y su sociedad; la que más se distancia de los conflictos sentimentales para centrarse en los sociales, siempre desde un punto de vista verdaderamente democrático, respetando la inteligencia del espectador y la dignidad de todos los personajes. La película no usa las diferencias ideológicas y de clase para generar un discurso maniqueo de buenos y malos, sino que muestra sin resentimiento todas las perspectivas del conflicto y sus (muchas) contradicciones para elaborar un cuento (rodado entre medias de sus Cuentos de las cuatro estaciones) de gran alcance político, social y moral.
Como persona inteligente, Rohmer no grita, sino que escucha a todo el mundo: al…
Review by nora ★★½

i was extremely into this for the first 15 minutes and then soon after became just....exhausted? by some of these characters? i think i just prefer rohmer when he's unfurling complex interpersonal relationships or quietly examining one character's emotional turmoil rather than when he's dissecting the left/right political divide. (but at least he had the decency to cast a hottie as his socialist mayor!) this has its moments but overall i was just not in the mood for this kind of rohmer movie ok, but if while i'm living in nyc metrograph screens this i will go watch it again.
Review by Carolina ★★★★

"It’s possible that in 10 or 20 years there’ll be no craftsmen left, only service and high-tech jobs. With video, faxes, computers, office work can be done at home. You’d never have to leave, see?"
Rohmer’s amusing parable of local French politics from 1993, tucked right in between his Four Seasons movies but completely distinct, is a more striking watch today than I may have expected.
It’s a film made of conversation, maybe even more than other Rohmer films if you can imagine that. Left versus right, real left versus "royalist left", the city versus the country, utilitarianism versus creativity, realism versus idealism.
Love Fabrice Luchini's earnest anger, and Fabrice Luchini’s opinionated ten year-old Zoe. Maybe we, the present time…
Review by freelunch ★★★★

This whole film is about French agricultural politics and Éric Rohmer still manages to make it pretty amusing for the most part (although some debate scenes go on for too long). Rohmer usually sticks the landing with his endings and this has the STRANGEST ending I’ve seen from him so far, like wtf hahaha.
Review by Miguel Marías

Como todas las películas de Éric Rohmer, L'arbre, le maire et la médiathèque es un bálsamo para el espectador asiduo, no sólo por la sencilla nitidez de sus imágenes y su falta de pretensiones, sino, sobre todo, por el inusitado respeto hacia el espectador y hacia sus personajes que demuestra su autor. Dentro de eso, unas veces acierta más que otras, aunque siempre a un nivel muy alto; en ocasiones, lo que nos cuenta resulta ya familiar, aunque nunca sea del todo previsible; de vez en cuando, como en este caso, Rohmer nos sorprende al adentrarse en terrenos para él inexplorados.
El árbol, el alcalde y la mediateca es no sólo una de las películas más irónicas y divertidas de…
Review by oneflyride ★★★★★

Reminded me why I originally fell in love with Rohmer...there's a pleasing, almost radical sense of economy and simplicity to his compositions/cutting, and he interjects so many small, truthful moments to deepen his pared-down framework, instances that exude compassion, understanding and humanity in their most affecting, observational form. Here a political treatise on modernity and tradition is broken down into various opposing viewpoints, and Rohmer, in typical rohmerian fashion, makes his characters voice their ideas with the utmost conviction; the conversational focus is always shifted to whoever is speaking, while the necessity of listening and opening yourself up to differing, clashing beliefs is firmly at the forefront, as a constant reminder of the intersubjective nature of politics (and life). Aptly…

Recent reviews

Review by Francesca ★★★★

I know I said I was gonna come off my Rohmer binge for a while, but I couldn't resist trying just one of the stand-alone pics. Apparently seen as a minor work in the oeuvre, this is actually one of my favourites of the bundle I've seen to date.
If you have seen any of his series films you know the rough formula - young French people in ideal locations talking through their messy relationships and romances and often acting in ways that contradict their stated beliefs in love. This is basically that but with slightly older French people and the discursive structure is instead laid onto politics rather than affairs of the heart. It ends up working really well…
Review by nora ★★½

i was extremely into this for the first 15 minutes and then soon after became just....exhausted? by some of these characters? i think i just prefer rohmer when he's unfurling complex interpersonal relationships or quietly examining one character's emotional turmoil rather than when he's dissecting the left/right political divide. (but at least he had the decency to cast a hottie as his socialist mayor!) this has its moments but overall i was just not in the mood for this kind of rohmer movie ok, but if while i'm living in nyc metrograph screens this i will go watch it again.
Review by andrew wehmann ★★★★

this:
“Rohmer tells us fascinating things about cinema: First of all, politics isn’t a subject, it’s a language. One does not speak ‘about politics,’ one talks ‘in politics.’ In the same way that in a Rohmer film, one does not talk about love but as a lover (which is to say, triumphant, frightened, self-confident, doubtful, betrayed, lying). At the end of the day, politics is used to make characters talk and each character contributes his accents, misinterpretations, interpretations, and score to this language.”
—from Antoine de Baecque’s review in Cahiers du Cinéma
Review by derrickdisney

Best. Politics film. Ever!!!!! 😍😍😍😍 ily rohmer, you are a treasure chest of cute, intelligent moments
Review by Charlie Kruse ★★★★

it's slow but deliberate in its' meanderings. it's also light and airy. Love it.
Review by Doctor Mullholland ★★★

Con unos primeros treinta minutos bárbaros, empieza a decaer a medida que avanza y en un punto ya no se entiende nada.
Lo más lindo es Rohmer criticando a los socialistas. Lo peor es que es una crítica demasiado suave.
Review by Tim Hilbert ★★★★½

Looks like I’m going to have to commission a complete chest piece of Rohmer because all he does is make great fucking cinema.
Review by Katie M ★★★★★

this literally is what it feels like to intern at the mayors office
one of my favorite rohmers! a city planning dream! public space is so important and only people in the community can truly know what will benefit the community!
Review by Paradox_9 ★★★★½

Rohmer siempre fue un conservador pero es interesante ver cómo en absolutamente todos los personajes aquí estan sus opiniones y sus contradicciones.
Como los intertitulos anuncian, esto es una comedia de errores que solo muestra el peor lado de la hipocresía y la moral francesas hacia el campo y Rohmer no podría haberlo hecho mejor.
PD: Fue extraño ver el uso de zooms al estilo Sang-Soo en una película de Rohmer. Recuerdo haber leído hace algún tiempo que no le gustaba la técnica.
Review by pete ★★★★★

i liked the part when they were talking
Review by bisolina ★★★★★ 1

even the children are unbelievably articulate in rohmer’s films.
Review by SeahorseScandal ★★½

MUBI alone