Jerome (Jean-Claude Brialy), a handsome diplomat engaged to be married, meets Claire (Laurence de Monaghan), the teenaged daughter of a friend, while on vacation in the Alps. He develops a perverse fixation on fondling her knee with only the fear of being exposed as a fetishist preventing him from acting on his fantasies. Through a series of failures the characters learn that it is sometimes better not to act on your feelings before you are aware of their consequences.

Le Genou de Clair was the fifth in Rohmer’s six moral tales series. It received rave reviews on it’s release, going on to win numerous awards and can be considered the archetypal Rohmer film. The smartly comic conversation analyses the nature of love and desire while the sumptuous settings and photography offer an appropriate backdrop for the characters feelings.