Claire's Knee

Set on the eve of his wedding at Lake Annecy, a career diplomat reconnects with an old acquaintance and, through her, meets two young women — the impulsive Laura and the more composed Claire. As the holiday unfolds, polite conversation and lakeside leisure give way to an understated moral puzzle: flirtation, wistfulness and the thin line between curiosity and impropriety begin to unsettle a man about to commit to marriage.

Rohmer turns a singular, oddly specific fixation — the narrator’s desire to touch Claire’s knee — into a delicate study of desire, restraint and self-deception. With quiet humor, intimate dialogue and sunlit settings, the film uses small gestures and private fantasies to illuminate character, revealing how a fleeting temptation can unmask deeper truths about choice, responsibility and the rules we set for ourselves.