Conte d'été

Eric Rohmer's characters are mostly intellectuals, and mostly not so bright. On one hand, this is to Rohmer's credit, since it's realistic; on the other hand, the rarer characters with more penetrating intelligence (as in, especially, "My Night at Maude's") are nicer to listen to. Rohmer's characters love to yak on about ideas, art, and their feelings. The talk, on the most literal level, is generally unpersuasive, but relationships are formed through enjoyment of conversation, and character (not limited to vanity) is revealed via defensiveness and posturing. "A Summer's Tale" follows twenty-something Gaspard during his summer vacation at a seaside resort town in Brittany. The people in the movie have fewer blind spots than most Rohmer characters, but not fewer difficulties. For a theme song, I'd suggest Weird Al Yankovic's "Good Enough For Now." The girl Gaspard had planned to meet alternately blows him off and strings him along. Another girl he meets, with whom there is palpable chemistry, has a distant boyfriend she doesn't seem very attached to. He vacillates on a third he is not crazy about but who bluntly conveys that she would take him. Gaspard is turned down twice for a romantic relationship (though not told to get lost entirely), and does the turning down once. The interactions exhibit a believable mixture of genuine affection, indecision, and awkwardness. Rough edges are not glossed over as they might be by romanticism or in recollection. These might have been ingredients for a dull virtuous accuracy. But "A Summer's Tale" moves at a good pace, turns in the story feel natural and mostly not inevitable, and the whole is affecting and memorable.

A young Frenchman on holiday at a seaside resort juggles tenuous relationships with three young women in this light hearted and understated film. Most of the film sees our young hero involved in long walks and talks as he explores the moral issues of who to love and who to leave. Those interested in lots of conversation and reading subtitles (if they don't speak French) may enjoy this winsome little flick. Others may find it tedious and uneventful.

This movie is about a math student (who is a bad mixer) and has to choose between three girls but instead he chooses a stereo mixer. If you have seen and liked any other fim of E. Rohmer, then you won't be disappointed by this one.

Dull French film from this reputable director is "A Summer's Tale" about a teenage guy who finds himself in a dilemma, having to chose between three girls during his summer riposte. Writer/director Eric Rohmer's film could be about the youth of today's lack of ability to be decisive, or perhaps it was focusing on their fear of commitment. "A Summer's Tale" could have been many things, but one thing it was not was interesting. Rarely does the pic grab our attention. The young cast try hard, but they too are left floundering by the weak, non-directional plot. Only Amanda Langlet, as the friendly Margot, delivers a showing that could be called memorable. This young thesp actually handles all the facets of the role very competently. Langlet is the only light though, in a bland coming of age film. Even the classy French scenery is somehow over-looked. Monday, May 4, 1998 - Hoyts Croydon

Eric Rohmer's characters are often irritating and insufferable, yet they can likewise be charming and utterly irresistible. In A Tale of Summer, Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) acts like a grown up teenager who likes to play at love but is unwilling to make commitments, finding himself unable to honestly express his feelings to three women he meets at a seaside resort. Like so many Rohmer films, the story takes place at a time when the characters have nothing to do but meet and talk and idle the days away, and you can be certain there is plenty of talk. Gaspar is a tall, slender young guitar player who comes to Brittany on vacation from his job as a mathematician and spends time by himself composing and playing music. Pausing long enough to get out and see the town, Gaspar meets Margot (Amanda Langlet) an ethnologist working in a local restaurant. He develops a relationship with Margot but it is all very platonic as Margot is waiting for her boyfriend to return from the Peace Corps and Gaspard says that he is waiting for the arrival of his girl friend Lena, vacationing with her cousins in Spain. Margot and Gaspard take long walks in the French countryside and engage in witty and intelligent conversation about relationships, jealousy, and sex and they seem well suited for each other but each avoids an emotional connection. At Margot's suggestion Gaspar meets another girl, Solene (Gwenaelle Simon), at a disco and they share a love for music but Solene becomes demanding when Gaspar is reluctant to make a commitment to take her on a trip to a nearby island. His ego is strengthened by Solene's attraction to him, but when Lena finally shows up, he must deal with her mercurial temperament, especially when she tells him that he is not worthy of her. Eventually, the young man digs himself quite a hole as he makes the same promise to all three women and is fearful of confronting them to explain. A Tale of Summer is one of Rohmer's lighter films and I found it to be a lovely and engaging way to spend two hours. Though his characters have plenty of flaws that are all too apparent, Rohmer does not judge or evaluate them but accepts them the way that they are -- so, for all their faults, I suppose we should as well.

Usually this movie is categorized as either a love story, comedy or drama. IMO it is all and none of these- for the simple reason that the plot does not really matter. What has impressed me about this movie is the realistic way the characters are portrayed. If in a Hollywood movie a character has merely two motivations acting on him this is already interpreted as a "highly complex personality". So the common movie shows characters with a 1D psyche which contradicts the many facets of Self and the elusive, fuzzy nature of personality that one usually has or experiences. On the other hand there are movies which emphasize the highly artistic side by stuffing in all kinds of metaphors, analogies, images, etc. While this might make for an interesting intellectual puzzle- to me itïs just dull because this avoids the medium's strength of portraying intense situations. Just like a book written in Latin: it can be fun deciphering it- but it certainly does not make a good read. With these extremes out of the way- back to _Conte d'ete_. It's presented in a diary-like way with the protagonist either on his own or in company of one of the girls he is in love with. There are a few group scenes but thankfully they are rare and the main focus is on dialogues between the different personalities. All of the characters appear convinced of having a static self at the time of speaking. Yet throughout the movie one can see quite rapid changes going on which, just as in real life are not completely directed at a specific goal (IMO linear character development only takes place in bad short stories). So while each character remains mostly unaware about his/her individual changes they are made obvious by the characters describing each other. The dialogues are extremely lifelike- with all the mechanisms of exaggerating, rationalizing, white lies, etc. What makes this movie a piece of art instead of just a diary film adaption is the timelessness with which it is presented. The images and characters are somewhat blurred or softened (_not_ in a visual sense!) as a fading memory might be. There are dates inserted every few minutes giving the plot a duration of about two weeks. Had this not been done it would be hard to tell whether the time span covered is 3 days or 3 years. Despite having an elaborate personality the characters at the same time remain general (archetypical, if you will) and personally I find it very easy to identify friends with these characters- which IMO is intended. To sum it up, I see this movie as an evocative exercise in applied psychology reflecting or focusing life towards the audience. While there are some recurring commentaries the film is for the most part free of moral judgement. There are two points of negative critic: - the otherwise excellent acting (which does not look like acting) is limited by the somewhat uninspired gestures of the main actor (Melvil Poupaud). - the Deus Ex Machina ending which is used to finish an otherwise endless story

The 'miniaturist' style of this director is a taste well worth acquiring. The story begins very simply, with a lone young man having a holiday and a sort of friendship begins between him and a waitress. Things start to get more complicated as another girl comes into the picture, then his old girlfriend turns up as well. There is a rather pointless feel after the film is over, since nothing much has happened at all, but it is ultimately very satisfying and charming as well as very funny. I don't know anything about the other 3 'tales of the 4 seasons', but if they are anything like as good as this then they are well worth checking out.

The protagonist is extremely indecisive. He chases skirts, but not really, he's in affair with 3 girls, but not really. He is so swayed around that there's almost nothing in this film he has done that I could name for a fact, except for maybe the thing that he loves music more than he loves girls. To summarise, nothing important ever happened in this film. It was such a waste of time, for him, girls and me the watcher.

I feel very split about this film. Certain aspects of the writing, primarily the bits of conversation centering around self-discovery and instrospection (whether or not Gaspard is correct about his beliefs about himself or not). There's certainly a good bit of clever banter, in particular between Margot and Gaspard. And Gaspard's own declarations about himself and the way he is basically kept me watching. However, I think Melvin Poupaud's performance as Gaspard was not only amateurish, but downright distracting. It's one thing to play a nervous character, but I'm convinced Poupaud simply had no idea what to do with his hands. He strokes his chin every ten second, and when he's not doing that, his arms are crossed. He can't even hold a girl's hand. The whole "chasing Lena" scene is awkward beyond watching an awkward character. We're watching an awkward actor, and it makes a huge difference in effect on the viewer. He has no idea what to do with himself when he's quiet. And, unfortunately, half of the film is dialogue-free, and the direction, while adequate, isn't artful enough to make up for that. If a better lead had been cast to play Gaspard, I think this film could have been much, much better. Instead, what we end up with is what might as well be an undergrad's film project, interjected with several bits of entertaining self-philosophies.

One of Rohmer's best. Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) takes a month long vacation to a beach in Normandy, waiting for his more or less official girlfriend, the somewhat snotty Lena (Aurelia Nolin), to come. While waiting for her, he befriends the waitress and aspiring anthropologist Margot (Rohmer regular Amanda Langlet). Eventually, a relationship between the two develops, which seems to consists almost exclusively of long talks in the beach. But this is not all, since he soon also meets the somewhat promiscuous (but "principled") Solene (Gwaenelle Simon) in a disco. When Lena finally arrives to the resort, more than halfway into the movie, he finally finds himself in the position of having to choose one of the three. Rohmer would want us to think that Margot would be the best choice, and is difficult to disagree, since she's so charming and so willing to listen to him and even put up with him. It's amazing how Rohmer (who was in his late 70s when he directed this) is able to portray realistically how young people talk and interact. The final decision by Gaspard was a bit of a disappointment, but it was probably the more realistic possibility.