Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Out 29 July/A Summer's Tale

Review by Marissa-Catherine Carrarini


2
Summer of love: Gwenaelle Simon
and Melvil Poupaud in A Summer's
Tale

To celebrate the DVD release of Tales of The Four Seasons by the acclaimed director Eric Rohmer, one of the doyennes of the French New Wave, there will be an exclusive presentation of A Summer’s Tale at the Chelsea Cinema.

A Summer’s Tale is the third film in the Rohmer’s series of stories set amongst the seasons. The film charts the small summer adventure of Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud), a young, good-looking man with few stories to tell but music to play. Gaspard arrives in Dinard, a seaside resort in Brittany to wait for Lena (Gwenaelle Simon). Lena is the girl he longs to hold, the girl he calls his girlfriend. But Lena is not in Dinard and Gaspard begins to doubt if she will come at all. Meanwhile he meets Margot (Aurelia Nolin), a student and part-time waitress. Margot has an air for love and life. They go on long walk together and have longer conversations about the intricacies of romance. But their lips never meet because they both have partners elsewhere. All the same Margot is determined for Gaspard to find a pretty girl for some summer love. She introduces him to Solène (Amanda Langlet), a voluptuous serial dater, and Gaspard falls for her flirty charm. Then Lena turns up.

Over the course of the film, Gaspard dedicates the same song to all three women and plans to go with each of them to Ouessant.Confused and troubled by the mess he has made, Gaspard does not know which way to turn. But the question remains: does he love any of them?

A Summer’s Tale is a charming, if a little clumsy, meandering exploration of moral love, intellectual and romantic love for young, bourgeois France. Director Eric Rohmer continues to shun big-name stars, film on a low-budget and work with his New Wave principles, leaving you with a perfect summer stroll and thought for the winter.


A Summer’s Tale will be showing at the Chelsea Cinema from 29 July to 4 Aug 2005


Want to see more of Rohmer? Then click on the following links:

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