PARIS MATCHES

By RICHARD CORLISS

For nearly half a century of film-making, Eric Rohmer has been faithful to his two mistresses: the streets of Paris, the beaches of the provinces. In dozens of films, including My Night at Maud's, Pauline at the Beach and A Tale of Summer, this dogged miniaturist has focused on the rituals of romance, on the nuances of pursuit and evasion in the perpetual-student class. Rendezvous in Paris (1994, just released in the U.S.) is a miniature in miniature: three shorts about men picking up women. It's one of Rohmer's loveliest caprices.

Each sketch pivots on a chance meeting that leads to romantic betrayal. In the first episode, a young woman hears that her beau is seeing other women; she decides to trump his perfidy only to find herself caught in an elaborate farce. In the third, a painter ditches his date to track a more sensitive type, who happens to be on her honeymoon. The plot mechanics don't interest Rohmer as much as the posturing beneath the would-be lovers' informed chatter and, beneath that, the hidden pain and expectations of rapture.

The pearl is in the middle: a fable of courtship in seven Paris parks in a two-month span. He, the lit student, professes his ardor with erudite intensity; she, the math student, is a seductive tease. She won't go to his apartment because it "lacks poetry," yet she proposes a two-day affair in which they'll play tourists in their own town. Rohmer adds a sour twist, but the enveloping mood is genial, the body language eloquent, the two players (Serge Renko, Aurore Rauscher) expert entrancers. One wants to bottle this episode; it's the perfect little gift for lovers of film, of Paris and of love.

--By Richard Corliss