Cinema: Adventures in Hopeless Love

THE NEST

Directed and Written by Jaime de Arminan

LE BEAU MARIAGE

Directed and Written by Eric Rohmer

One usually thinks of sexual obsession as an undetected virus of the soul, a bug caught some time in the formative years but remaining dormant until some temporary weakness of the mind or spirit permits it to break loose. Surely such a classic pathology lies behind the unexpected passion that afflicts the otherwise kindly and harmless Don Alejandro in a wise and compassionate Spanish film called The Nest. The strength of Eric Rohmer's equally excellent Le Beau...