A SUMMER'S TALE (76)

Directed by: Eric Rohmer

Starring: Melvil Poupaud, Aurelia Nolin, Amanda Langlet

The Pitch: At a Brittany beach resort, a young musician gets involved with three different women.

Theo Sez: After the semi-abstract doodling of RENDEZVOUS IN PARIS it's both a relief and a slight disappointment to find Rohmer back to making a familiar Rohmer movie, the kind that's hard to evaluate because it's built on the same elegant lines and equably civilised tone as its predecessors - though by any standard this is surely among the director's most perfect work, right up there with THE GREEN RAY and PAULINE AT THE BEACH (or perhaps I just like the summery ones more). Unlike RENDEZVOUS it's very much a shaped movie, its plotting quiet but undoubtedly schematic - it's like the most wistful, most softly-spoken of Feydeau farces - its characters complex but always firmly defined (they're easy to describe in 25 words or less). All of which may be why it's so purely enjoyable, the people so easy to tune into and have fun with, the various complications so witty, the deus ex machina ending so goofily irresistible. It's a polished, assured, ineffably sophisticated movie, sombre in its undercurrents but sparkling on the surface ; and, if it makes you feel like a bit of a tweedy, middle-aged fogey for enjoying it all so thoroughly - well, c'est la vie.