Pauline at the Beach (1983)
"Pauline à la plage" (original title)

Marion is about to divorce from her husband and takes her 15-year-old niece Pauline on a vacation to Granville. She meets an old love...

Director:

Eric Rohmer

Writer:

Eric Rohmer

Stars:

Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory

5 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Amanda Langlet	...	Pauline
Arielle Dombasle	...	Marion
Pascal Greggory	...	Pierre
Féodor Atkine	...	Henri
Simon de La Brosse	...	Sylvain
Rosette	...	Louisette

Storyline

Fifteen year old Pauline and her older cousin, model-shaped Marion, go to the emtying Atlantic coast for an autumn holiday . Marion ignores the approaches of a surfer and falls for Henri, a hedonist who is only interested in a sexual adventure and drops her soon. Pauline's little romance with a young man (Sylvain) is also spoiled by Henri.

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Plot Keywords:

vacation | beach | seaside | falling in love | sand | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

23 March 1983 (France)

Also Known As:

Pauline at the Beach

Filming Locations:

Mont Saint-Michel, Manche, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films Ariane, Les Films du Losange

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Pierre confronts Pauline at her cousin's house, Pauline is interrupted in reading a Gallimard book entitled 'L'Ennemi public n° 2', written by Gérard Lecas. Lecas, while an author of not overwhelming popularity, was also involved in filmmaking, particularly in the films of director Eric Rohmer, and was in fact working as a sound assistant on Pauline at the Beach. 'L'Ennemi public n° 2', his debut novel, had been published in 1982, the year in which the film was being made.

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Quotes

Marion: She shouldn't be picking up idiots on the beach.

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Connections

Referenced in Folly Island (2001)

User Reviews

Love and other disappointments

I'm going through a phase of catching up with Rohmer films I've missed, and this one was so good it's tempted me to post a comment again, something I haven't got round to for a while. It is perfect, typical Rohmer: location filming, very wordy script, indecisive characters...all in the service of Rohmer's film theory, that in cinema you use dialogue to tell (as in literature) and the camera to show. The interest and conflict come from the (inevitable?) mismatch between the two. Here, each of the characters needs desperately to believe that what they saw was the truth of the situation. At the end, Marion has learnt enough to know that her perception may be false. But she'll go on believing it anyway, because that is necessary to her sense of self. An excellent treatise on the way in which our perceptions are as important as the 'truth' of any situation. The colours in the film deliberately reference Matisse, and there is something of his style too: by showing the flat surface of the canvas, you both open up its beauty and reveal it to be a construction rather than a truth. The use of glimpses through windows adds a Hitchcockian dimension too. Another one to savour.