Summer Shanty: Rohmer’s Breezy Contemplation a Welcome Resurrection
Never before released in the Us, Eric Rohmer’s 1996 title, A Summer’s Tale, which is part of his Tales of the Four Seasons cycle, finally arrives for a seasonally appropriate theatrical run. A chatty, observational exercise, it’s a humorously playful film with the director’s usual examination of lovelorn humans and their amusing interactions. As such, it’s a very welcome resuscitation, albeit nearly twenty years after the fact, from a cherished filmmaker who passed away in 2010.
Starring a mop-headed Melvil Poupaud as a young adult, this is a delectable performance from the actor, a perfomer since a preadolescent who has become a prolific presence in and outside of French cinema, headlining titles from Francois Ozon, Xavier Dolan, and Zoe Cassavetes. Intelligent, contemplative conversation and amusing interactions transpire effortlessly and with continual interest, as per usual in Rohmer’s fashion.
Never before released in the Us, Eric Rohmer’s 1996 title, A Summer’s Tale, which is part of his Tales of the Four Seasons cycle, finally arrives for a seasonally appropriate theatrical run. A chatty, observational exercise, it’s a humorously playful film with the director’s usual examination of lovelorn humans and their amusing interactions. As such, it’s a very welcome resuscitation, albeit nearly twenty years after the fact, from a cherished filmmaker who passed away in 2010.
Starring a mop-headed Melvil Poupaud as a young adult, this is a delectable performance from the actor, a perfomer since a preadolescent who has become a prolific presence in and outside of French cinema, headlining titles from Francois Ozon, Xavier Dolan, and Zoe Cassavetes. Intelligent, contemplative conversation and amusing interactions transpire effortlessly and with continual interest, as per usual in Rohmer’s fashion.
- 6/21/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The late New Wave auteur Eric Rohmer equated his films to novels — that's what auteur means, after all — and A Summer's Tale feels like a great beach read of a movie, that deceptively slender paperback you tuck into your luggage because it's substantial without weighing much.
The plot of this 1996 film, newly restored and in its first American theatrical release, seems quaintly simple: On a Brittany beach-town holiday, a moody math student (Melvil Poupaud) waits to meet his girlfriend (Aurélia Nolin), meanwhile making a friend (Amanda Langlet) who wants to set him up with her friend (Gwenaëlle Simon).
The ensuing complications play out as a perfectly minimal farce, with edges planed so smooth as to be almost invisible. Days and moods pass...
The plot of this 1996 film, newly restored and in its first American theatrical release, seems quaintly simple: On a Brittany beach-town holiday, a moody math student (Melvil Poupaud) waits to meet his girlfriend (Aurélia Nolin), meanwhile making a friend (Amanda Langlet) who wants to set him up with her friend (Gwenaëlle Simon).
The ensuing complications play out as a perfectly minimal farce, with edges planed so smooth as to be almost invisible. Days and moods pass...
- 6/18/2014
- Village Voice
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