A Tale of Springtime (1990)
"Conte de printemps" (original title)

Simple conversations engender complicated human interactions. Jeanne is open and even-tempered, a philosophy teacher at a lycée. Her fiancé is away and she doesn't want to stay at his messy... See full summary »

Director:

Eric Rohmer

Writer:

Eric Rohmer

Stars:

Anne Teyssèdre, Hugues Quester, Florence Darel

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Anne Teyssèdre	...	Jeanne
Hugues Quester	...	Igor
Florence Darel	...	Natacha
Eloïse Bennett	...	Ève
Sophie Robin	...	Gaëlle
Marc Lelou	...	Gildas
François Lamore	...	William

Storyline

Simple conversations engender complicated human interactions. Jeanne is open and even-tempered, a philosophy teacher at a lycée. Her fiancé is away and she doesn't want to stay at his messy flat; she's loaned hers to a cousin, so she accepts the invitation of Natasha, a music student whom she meets at a party, to sleep in her father Igor's bedroom because he's always with his young girlfriend, Eve. Natasha tells Jeanne a story of a missing necklace and her suspicions of Eve. They all meet at dinner, then again at Igor's country house. Is Natasha scheming to get Igor and Jeanne together alone? Once alone, what determines how they choose to act? And the necklace, what of it?

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Plot Keywords:

father daughter relationship | piano player | piano | season in title | comedy of manners | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

4 April 1990 (France)

Also Known As:

Tales of Four Seasons

Filming Locations:

Lycée Jacques Brel, 4-6, Rue Dulcie La Courneuve, Seine-Saint-Denis, France

Box Office

Gross:

$201,332 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Compagnie Eric Rohmer (CER), Investimage, Les Films du Losange

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

French visa # 69541.

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Connections

Followed by Autumn Tale (1998)

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Soundtracks

"Montmorency Blues"
Written by Jean-Louis Valéro

User Reviews

Tension builds to an upbeat ending

From the beginning of this film to the end Jeanne is constantly displaced. The first scene has her returning to her own apartment after a long absence to find the cousin she was allowing to borrow the place is still there in spite of her agreement to leave a day or two previously. Although she desperately wants to return to the order of her own place she pretends that she was just stopping by to pick something up on her way back to the place she shares with her out of town boyfriend. However, she does not feel comfortable returning to this disordered place so to avoid it as long as possible she goes to the party of a former acquaintance. Here she meets Natasha and the plot gets started.

Natasha lives alone in a big apartment and she invites Jeanne to stay with her a few days. Jeanne mostly feels out of place here as well but her two day stay stretches into something like ten before she is finally able to return home. During this time she grows increasingly agitated which causes her to act distrustful and paranoid. Unfortunately, her new friend Natasha is acting much the same way toward her father's current love interest and the combination of a negative atmosphere and her own paranoia put her in a rather unpleasant situation.

In spite of the general tension of the plot, A Tale of Springtime ends on a very upbeat note that suggests most of the distrust the characters felt toward one another was unfounded. Indeed, the blossoming of new relationships and the general happiness of the characters make Spring a fitting setting for the film. Still, I couldn't help but feel that this wasn't one of Rohmer's strongest efforts: sure, the characters were just as natural as ever and the dialog was even more chock full of interesting ideas than usual but the cinematography wasn't all that special. All things considered, I would say this was quite good but nowhere near the best Rohmer has offered.