A Tale of Winter (1992)

Five years after losing touch with a summer fling, a woman has difficulty choosing between her two suitors.

Director:

Éric Rohmer

Writer:

Éric Rohmer

Stars:

Charlotte Véry, Frédéric van den Driessche, Michel Voletti

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charlotte Véry	...	Félicie
Frédéric van den Driessche	...	Charles
Michel Voletti	...	Maxence
Hervé Furic	...	Loïc
Ava Loraschi	...	Elise
Christiane Desbois	...	Mother
Rosette	...	Sister
Jean-Luc Revol	...	Brother-in-Law
Haydée Caillot	...	Edwige
Jean-Claude Biette	...	Quentin
Marie Rivière	...	Dora
Claudine Paringaux	...	Customer
Roger Dumas	...	Léontès
Danièle Lebrun	...	Paulina
Diane Lepvrier	...	Hermione

Storyline

Felicie and Charles have a serious if whirlwind holiday romance. Due to a mix-up on addresses they lose contact, and five years later at Christmas-time Felicie is living with her mother in a cold Paris with a daughter as a reminder of that long-ago summer. For male companionship she oscillates between hairdresser Maxence and the intellectual Loic, but seems unable to commit to either as the memory of Charles and what might have been hangs over everything.

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Plot Keywords:

librarian | winter | female nudity | train | sequel | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

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Quotes

Loïc: If I were God, I'd cherish you particularly.
Felicie: Why?
Loïc: Because you were unjustly unhappy, and you can sacrifice your happiness, your life to a love that's out of reach.

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Connections

Followed by Autumn Tale (1998)

User Reviews

The best of seasons

It has been a pleasure catching up with the eminently civilised cinema of Eric Rohmer recently. He is a director who needs the re-see treatment every so often as many of his works tend to blur into one because of their similarity. Of course the beach ones look different from the urban ones but it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one group of characters talking around a table from another doing the same thing unless one knows the films really well. Although there is no denying that Rohmer is the master observer of the minutiae of middle class French everyday living, I find my response to his works differs considerably from film to film, always according to the degree with which he interests me in his characters. In one important sense however all his films are worth watching and that is the skill with which he evokes the most marvellous naturalistic acting from his actors, particularly from young women. Even a film as tiresome as "The Aviator's Wife" is redeemed by the the masterly performance by the young girl the hero meets in a Paris park. For anyone wishing to embark on an exploration of Rohmer, the tetralogy of films of the four seasons made during the late 'eighties and 'nineties will provide a particularly fertile experience. The characters in "Spring" and "Autumn" are admittedly the least interesting and I find the viticulturist and her matchmaking friend in "Autumn" rather tiresome. The young man holidaying in "Summer" has dilemmas in his relationships with three girls about which one really does not care, but the film is most agreeable to watch. If these three films represent Rohmer at this more mundane, "Un Conte d'hiver" is a different matter altogether. There is nothing discursive in a work in which the director seems to have balanced form and content perfectly. It is like a sonata form movement in music with a long central development bordered by a short exposition and recapitulation. In the opening, young man meets young woman on holiday. It is the passion of a lifetime that ends with the misadventure of a confused address. Unable to find her child's father the woman resigns herself to trying to find love in other men. She vacillates between a hairdresser and a librarian, nice enough people but we know as she does deep down that there can be no substitute for that idyllic holiday encounter. Our self identification with the dilemma of the young woman, marvellously played by Charlotte Very, is so acute that the resolution when it eventually arrives literally made me shout and cry for joy. In "Conte d'Hiver" Rohmer has given us one of cinema's great feel-good factor films to stand alongside "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Quiet Man".

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

29 January 1992 (France)

Also Known As:

A Tale of Winter

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,802, 21 December 2014

Gross USA:

$23,268

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$52,431

Company Credits

Production Co:

Compagnie Eric Rohmer (CER), Les Films du Losange, Canal+

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1