Scenery

Rohmer filmed the actors in digital and mixed them into the painted backdrops, before 'kinescoping' (that's what they say but I don't know what it exactly means) the image onto 35mm film.

Rohmer often makes his films out of pictorially composed tableaux. Here he's taken it to an extreme.

He's one of several old time filmmakers working in digital (cf Godard, Varda, Bergman), each of them with very different results.

RFL

It looks like Roehmer is deliberately evoking 18th century paintings. If you look at cityscapes and street scenes painted in the 1700s, then you might agree with me that the film has captured the hues, scale and atmosphere of those pictures. I cannot think of another film I've seen that's used such a technique, and I think it's glorious.

I came to this discussion board today to find out what's being said about the scenary of this film. It's extraordinary. Yes, agree with previous posters--the early scenes are composed much like European paintings of the time.

But it's more than exterior scenery that is different. The interior rooms of Madame are strangely flat, YET I know they are three dimensional. And then there is the palette--only pastels. An obsession with blue and pink. The entire thing shot in a strange wintery light.I wish I had a vocabulary of lighting and camera work to describe how this film looks to me.

This film has an interesting look, and while many may not like it, is IS distinctive.

Dramatically the filmn is--unh.