A Summer's Tale

A Summer's Tale
by Eric Rohmer

A Summer's Tale
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Aim? Lef?vre, Amanda Langlet, Aurelia Nolin, Gwena?lle Simon, Melvil Poupaud
Director: Eric Rohmer
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 113 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-09-05
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Fox Lorber

Movie Reviews of A Summer's Tale

Movie Review: Rohmer's Summer Tale shimmers as brilliantly as the sun on the Breton sea.
Summary: 5 Stars

Along with his Six Moral Tales, A Summer's Tale (Conte d'?t?) ranks among my favorite ?ric Rohmer films. The 1996 French romantic drama is the third film in his "Contes des quatre saisons" (Tales of the Four Seasons) series, which also includes A Tale of Springtime (Conte de printemps) (1990), A Tale of Winter (Conte d'hiver) (1992), and Autumn Tale (Conte d'automne) (1998). A Summer's Tale stars Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Aur?lia Nolin, and Gwena?lle Simon in a subtly-nuanced love story about a reserved young man, Gaspard (Poupaud), who travels to the small seaside village of Dinard in Normandy to rendezvous with his sort-of girlfriend, Lena (Nolin), who has a real fear of commitment. While waiting for Lena to arrive, and wondering if she will arrive, Gaspard befriends an intelligent, outgoing waitress, Margot (Langlet of Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach), while also becoming entangled in a fling with her tres-sexy friend, Sol?ne (Simon). When Lena finally arrives, hapless Gaspard finds himself committed to all three women. At one point in the film, Margot tells Gaspard that she has watched him change from "lovesick" to a "clumsy Romeo" to "crafty" to "quite naughty" to "basically decent but crafty" in just two weeks. This bittersweet romance reveals Rohmer at his best. At age 76, Rohmer understands adolescent relationships. The Rohmeresque dialogue shimmers as brilliantly as the sun on the Breton sea against which the Summer's Tale is set.

G. Merritt



Summary of A Summer's Tale

The third of Eric Rohmer's Four Seasons romances follows the indecision of a young man who juggles three women during his final summer between school and work. Drifting along the beaches of Brittany while waiting for his commitment-shy girlfriend, Lena, to meet him, Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud of Diary of a Seducer) becomes fast friends with pretty waitress Margot (Amanda Langlet, the grown-up Pauline of Pauline at the Beach a decade earlier) and has a fling with Margot's aggressive and sexy friend Solene before Lena finally shows. By then, Gaspard has inadvertently committed himself to all three women. It's a lovely portrait of awkwardness and ambivalence set against the gorgeous land and seascape of Brittany, and populated by pretty young performers.

This, the most understated of Rohmer's sex farces, carries a bittersweet sting, but little of the emotional effervescence of his best films. While these characters are no less pretentious or vulnerable than his other lovers (who all seem to be emotionally at sea), Rohmer just skims the surface of their emotional revelation. His greatest achievement is the evocation of young adults caught between their teens and 20s, with little real experience but full of easily sidelined ideals. In the best Rohmer tradition, the circular conversations and solipsistic monologues are neither glib nor pretentious, merely the immature but sincere ramblings of vulnerable youth playing adult games. --Sean Axmaker

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