Review: ‘A Summer’s Tale’ — A Scathing, Thoughtful Character Study
Eric Rohmer’s 1996 film is a sensual and sultry romantic comedy… that happens to despise its protagonist
Following on from our discussion of A Tale of Springtime a few months ago, I was excited to hop into my next Eric Rohmer film for the seasonal focus. Stupidly, I didn’t notice until this morning that Rohmer’s films don’t run in the order of the seasons — A Tale of Springtime is actually followed by A Tale of Winter, and then it is A Summer’s Tale and A Tale of Autumn. So not only did I accidentally break the order of the films today, but the title’s translation also broke the satisfying pattern of A Tale of ____. I’d be upset were Rohmer’s films not some of the best I’ve been watching so far this year.
A Summer’s Tale follows the shy, lonely Gaspard (Melvil Poupard). We meet him as he arrives, via boat, in Dinard to start off a vacation while waiting to start his first job post-graduation. Waiting to be joined by, or even simply hear from, his girlfriend Lena (Auriela Nolin), Gaspard begins his holiday quaintly. He walks by the beach, soaking in the sun and swimming around in ways that, as I believe I’ve mentioned in connection with Rohmer before, makes me think of the early parts of Camus’ The Stranger. Sometimes I forget how dark…
