Conte d'été (1996)

Director:

Eric Rohmer

Writer:

Eric Rohmer (writer)

Release Date:

5 June 1996 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

In the centre of part 3 of Rohmer's "4 Seasons-Cycle" stands a young man, Gaspard, who went to Dinard...

Plot Keywords:

Friendship | Young Man | Beach | Vacation | Young Woman

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Melvil Poupaud	...	Gaspard
Amanda Langlet	...	Margot
Gwenaëlle Simon	...	Solene
Aurelia Nolin	...	Lena
Aimé Lefèvre	...	The Newfoundlander
Alain Guellaff	...	Uncle Alain
Evelyne Lahana	...	Aunt Maiwen
Yves Guérin	...	Accordionist
Franck Cabot	...	Cousin

Also Known As:

A Summer's Tale

Runtime:

113 min | Mexico:105 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Argentina:Atp | Brazil:14 | Chile:TE | Germany:o.Al. | Hong Kong:IIA | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Dinard, Ille-et-Vilaine, France

Company:

Canal+

Movie Connections:

Followed by Conte d'automne (1998)

Soundtrack:

Fille de corsaire

A fortnight by the sea in charming company.

Gaspard, played by Melvil Poupaud, is a song writer, a good-looking but

dull young man, a gauche loner with a flat voice and an inexpressive

face who comes to this delightful holiday island of Dinard off the

Brittany coast to await the arrival of his `sort-of' girl friend, who

demonstrates how much she loves him by keeping him waiting for two

weeks. During those two weeks, however, he finds two other girl friends

- or rather they find him. It must be his good-looks, it can't be

anything else. First he is picked up in a restaurant by Margot, a

waitress, who turns out not to be a waitress but an Ethnologist, just

helping out her aunt who owns the restaurant. Obviously such a bright

and intelligent girl could not be merely working-class!

Amanda Langlet, who plays Margot and who appeared ten years earlier in

Rohmer's `Pauline at the Beach.' is clearly the star of this film. Much

of the enjoyment of the film is derived from being in the company of

this vivacious girl and being allowed to eavesdrop on her talk with

Gaspard about love and relationships as they roam in the bright sunlight

around this lovely French sea-side resort and the countryside beyond.

She is such a very warm and sympathetic listener that it is difficult to

understand why he doesn't fall in love with her. Why she doesn't fall in

love with him is easier to understand. (you ask yourself; is this man a

very good actor or a very bad one?) He makes a couple of inept attempts

to move the relationship forward but is repulsed; she wants only

friendship - and you feel he is lucky to get that - while she awaits the

return of her Anthropologist boy-friend who is away in South America.

Gaspard's dullness is made obvious when she takes him to hear an old

sailor sing sea-shanties; her face so eager and enrapt as she listens

intently; his face, alongside, so lifeless.

She encourages him to take up with Solene, played by Gwenaelle Simon in

her first film, a friend of her's who they meet at a dance, but when he

does, she is jealous, jealous of their friendship she says but secretly

hurt that he now thinks of her as only a friend.

His relationship with Solene seems idyllic at first, they seem

marvelously happy and well suited to each other. He is accepted warmly

into her family, they all go sailing together and have a merry

sing-a-long to one of his songs. But then, sadly, her true nature shows;

she becomes aggressive and demanding, insisting that he take her to the

island of Quessant or their relationship is at an end. And now Lena, his

`sort-of' girl friend, played by Aurelia Nolin, appears and insists that

he take her instead. He must now choose.

Rohmer's films are never plot-dependent; he prefers to dwell on the

characters, to bring us into a close, intimate relation with them, while

they reveal themselves in talk. And when the characters are as

attractive as Margot