Conte d'été
Tags: romantic

Plot synopsis:
Gaspard, the main character, arrives on holiday in Dinard, a small Breton seaside resort. He awaits his girlfriend, Lena, who does not arrive. Only a short while after this, he crosses paths with the waitress Margot, and they develop a strong friendship; Gaspard also has a fling with Solène, Margot's adventure-seeking friend. Lena eventually does turn up, and by this time, Gaspard has become attached to all three women.
Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) is a young mathematician/musician vacationing by the seaside in Brittany, France before starting a new job. The film covers roughly three weeks in his life and introduces us to the trio of women he encounters during that time. First is Margot (Amanda Langlet), a cheerful waitress who enjoys spending time with Gaspard, but isn't interested in more than a friendship. Solene (Gwenaëlle Simon) is more affectionate and sensual - she's willing to have a relationship with Gaspard if he will commit to only her. Then there's Lena (Aurelia Nolin), Gaspard's longtime semi-girlfriend whose ambiguous romantic attitude towards him keeps him in a state of permanent consternation. As the summer wears on, Gaspard finds himself increasingly torn between the three women, finding each the most appealing when he's with her, and recognizing that the day is fast approaching when he will have to choose.

Review: I love the way Rohmer slowly guides the audience into the film, without a need for narration, only the sights and sounds of Brittany.
"I don't want to plan my life around money", Gaspard tells Margot, and you see him go through a process of writing his sea shantey, a really great little piece of music if you ask me.
On paper, his stories and his characters don't really seem that interesting, but he adds something to them that make them resonate so deeply in me, and I am almost awestruck when it happens.The great thing is that I can say that for almost all of Rohmer's films, especially those that make up the "Tales of the Four Seasons" I can't say I have a favorite because things like favorite or top films just go against the grain of what Rohmer is doing.
and yet, each character he's given us, Jeanne, Natascha and Igor from Spring, Gaspard and Margot from Summer, Isabelle, Magali, Gerard and Rosine from Autumn, and Felicie and Charles from Winter, are drawn so vividly that I sometimes forget that they are only characters and not people I call as personal friends.
In addition, I'd like to add that Amanda Langlet's characters seem to be the only "pure" characters in any of Rohmer's films, both as Pauline and Margot, She is beautiful, kind, intelligent, honest.....whereas his other characters, though likable and sympathetic, all have certain flaws.., some tell lies, some are neurotic, some judgemental, deceitful..self-indulgent, capricious.., so forth..
A beautiful setting, good acting (Amanda Langlet is brilliant and deserves more roles than just the two Rohmer-films she was in) and a teasing simple tale of a young man who should enjoy a calm summer holiday but instead makes things difficult by not making his mind up about which girl he will choose.
When he realises the girls are in charge, he leaves the stage.Conte d'été is certainly one of the best Rohmer movies..
Lots of people suffer problems of integration and self-achievement next to others and these have been thoroughly dealt with in the film.Its main problems are how much is worth a summer romance next to a sincere friendship, and the importance of knowing exactly one's feelings and purposes (do I love her, or do I not ?
Am I merely trying to have fun?).In the end, we are faced with a line addressed to the main character that we can take for ourselves: "it was your own choice, think about it".That's the main message: the director presents a problem, the dialogues delve deeply in several of its aspects but the conclusion of why things turned out as they did is left to us.
Overall, a beautiful little gem that also manages to pose a barrage of questions about love, without ever telling the audience what to think.I need to watch more Rohmer movies..
In A Tale of Summer, Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) acts like a grown up teenager who likes to play at love but is unwilling to make commitments, finding himself unable to honestly express his feelings to three women he meets at a seaside resort.
Like so many Rohmer films, the story takes place at a time when the characters have nothing to do but meet and talk and idle the days away, and you can be certain there is plenty of talk.
Gaspar is a tall, slender young guitar player who comes to Brittany on vacation from his job as a mathematician and spends time by himself composing and playing music.Pausing long enough to get out and see the town, Gaspar meets Margot (Amanda Langlet) an ethnologist working in a local restaurant.
He develops a relationship with Margot but it is all very platonic as Margot is waiting for her boyfriend to return from the Peace Corps and Gaspard says that he is waiting for the arrival of his girl friend Lena, vacationing with her cousins in Spain.
Margot and Gaspard take long walks in the French countryside and engage in witty and intelligent conversation about relationships, jealousy, and sex and they seem well suited for each other but each avoids an emotional connection.
At Margot's suggestion Gaspar meets another girl, Solene (Gwenaelle Simon), at a disco and they share a love for music but Solene becomes demanding when Gaspar is reluctant to make a commitment to take her on a trip to a nearby island.His ego is strengthened by Solene's attraction to him, but when Lena finally shows up, he must deal with her mercurial temperament, especially when she tells him that he is not worthy of her.
A Tale of Summer is one of Rohmer's lighter films and I found it to be a lovely and engaging way to spend two hours.
If in a Hollywood movie a character has merely two motivations acting on him this is already interpreted as a "highly complex personality".
So the common movie shows characters with a 1D psyche which contradicts the many facets of Self and the elusive, fuzzy nature of personality that one usually has or experiences.
It's presented in a diary-like way with the protagonist either on his own or in company of one of the girls he is in love with.
Yet throughout the movie one can see quite rapid changes going on which, just as in real life are not completely directed at a specific goal (IMO linear character development only takes place in bad short stories).
The dialogues are extremely lifelike- with all the mechanisms of exaggerating, rationalizing, white lies, etc.What makes this movie a piece of art instead of just a diary film adaption is the timelessness with which it is presented.
Despite having an elaborate personality the characters at the same time remain general (archetypical, if you will) and personally I find it very easy to identify friends with these characters- which IMO is intended.To sum it up, I see this movie as an evocative exercise in applied psychology reflecting or focusing life towards the audience.
While there are some recurring commentaries the film is for the most part free of moral judgement.There are two points of negative critic: - the otherwise excellent acting (which does not look like acting) is limited by the somewhat uninspired gestures of the main actor (Melvil Poupaud).
There are no hard or harsh cuts; no need for welding goggles to sit through this movie !This is a small yet honest tale: the protagonists talk, rather than babble or throw comic book lines at each other.A SUMMER'S TALE is not an epic, nor depicting a world changing event or some bigger than life humdrum.
Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) takes a month long vacation to a beach in Normandy, waiting for his more or less official girlfriend, the somewhat snotty Lena (Aurelia Nolin), to come.
Rohmer would want us to think that Margot would be the best choice, and is difficult to disagree, since she's so charming and so willing to listen to him and even put up with him.
It's amazing how Rohmer (who was in his late 70s when he directed this) is able to portray realistically how young people talk and interact.
There's absolutely nothing happening that makes you wonder: "What the hell is going on now" It could be the real holiday story somebody tells his good friends.
It's just pure life, there are real dialogues not this awful kind of small talks and pseudo intellectual nonsense which we know too good from Hollywood movies.
A Summer's Tale – Pretty solid movie by Eric Rohmer.
In this movie Rohmer studies a couple of weeks in a life of a young man traveling on vacation before starting his new job.
Like a lot of Rohmer's movies, it examines relationships which the characters develop, their perceptions of one another and how that perception changes over time.
The way Rohmer gives insights through dialogue is pretty interesting, it often leaves the viewer to determine for themselves why a character said this or that and what it reveals about them.
The movie looks very carefully crafted and Rohmer is very particular about what he wants the viewer to see, often depicting relatively minor events or ending some scenes abruptly.
Rohmer's characters love to yak on about ideas, art, and their feelings.
The talk, on the most literal level, is generally unpersuasive, but relationships are formed through enjoyment of conversation, and character (not limited to vanity) is revealed via defensiveness and posturing."A Summer's Tale" follows twenty-something Gaspard during his summer vacation at a seaside resort town in Brittany.
The people in the movie have fewer blind spots than most Rohmer characters, but not fewer difficulties.
But "A Summer's Tale" moves at a good pace, turns in the story feel natural and mostly not inevitable, and the whole is affecting and memorable..
Gaspard, a young mathematics graduate comes to a beautiful island beach resort in Brittany, there to meet up with his girl friend Leon.
The format of the film is much like a personal diary with the day to day events moving the story to its inevitable conclusion.
Each of the three girls interrogate Gaspard about his attitudes to love, friendship and women in general.
Eric Rohmer has a keen eye as he reveals all the hopes and disappointments of people searching for love.
Gaspard, played by Melvil Poupaud, is a song writer, a good-looking butdull young man, a gauche loner with a flat voice and an inexpressiveface who comes to this delightful holiday island of Dinard off theBrittany coast to await the arrival of his `sort-of' girl friend, whodemonstrates how much she loves him by keeping him waiting for twoweeks.
Obviously such a brightand intelligent girl could not be merely working-class!Amanda Langlet, who plays Margot and who appeared ten years earlier inRohmer's `Pauline at the Beach.' is clearly the star of this film.
Muchof the enjoyment of the film is derived from being in the company ofthis vivacious girl and being allowed to eavesdrop on her talk withGaspard about love and relationships as they roam in the bright sunlightaround this lovely French sea-side resort and the countryside beyond.She is such a very warm and sympathetic listener that it is difficult tounderstand why he doesn't fall in love with her.
(you ask yourself; is this man avery good actor or a very bad one?) He makes a couple of inept attemptsto move the relationship forward but is repulsed; she wants onlyfriendship - and you feel he is lucky to get that - while she awaits thereturn of her Anthropologist boy-friend who is away in South America.Gaspard's dullness is made obvious when she takes him to hear an oldsailor sing sea-shanties; her face so eager and enrapt as she listensintently; his face, alongside, so lifeless.She encourages him to take up with  Solene, played by Gwenaelle Simon inher first film, a friend of her's who they meet at a dance, but when hedoes, she is jealous, jealous of their friendship she says but secretlyhurt that he now thinks of her as only a friend.His relationship with Solene seems idyllic at first, they seemmarvelously happy and well suited to each other.
All the while he constantly moons over the awaited figure of Lena, who maybe his girlfriend, or just a friend-who's-a-girl(even when she arrives, very late in the day, it's hard to tell!) Along the way Margot encourages him to date the flirty Solene, who's almost as ambiguous in her view of relationships as him, although, for a while it seems as if they are making progress as a couple.
Much of the appeal of this movie comes from the performance and personality of Amanda Langlet as Margot.
As with all the Rohmer films I've seen this is not a movie that's filled with high drama or visual pyrotechnics but it does have an appealing reality.
In this slight but engaging tale, Rohmer follows the actions of Gaspard, a sullen-faced Frenchman whose hair resembles the curls of the late Michael Hutchence of INXS, but whose love life is all awry.
many of the french films I have seen have been dark and depressing, but this was a really funny, pleasant little movie.the "geek"-like main character is in britanny for the summer.
there's not much excitement, but it's not that kind of a movie.well, it's highly recommended if you want to see a charming funny film and don't mind reading subtitles.
This is the third Eric Rohmer film I have seen (the others being "Summer" and "Claire's Knee") and I thought those were quite entertaining, too.
The one thing I like about Rohmer is it feels like he just took a camera and filmed real people.
The French film Conte d'été was shown in the U.S. with the title A Summer's Tale (1996).
It was written and directed by Eric Rohmer.Melvil Poupaud plays Gaspard, an intelligent young man who has just graduated from college, and is taking a vacation in Brittany.
In view of this situation, Margot and Gaspard decide to be just good friends, but not lovers.
Things happen in the movie--Gaspard meets a local young woman to whom he is attracted, he and Margot go for long walks on the beach, he composes a sea chantey.
(Hard to explain, but it makes sense in the movie.)However, what mostly happens in this movie is what mostly happens in other Rohmer movies--people talk about relationships.
However, when Rohmer's characters talk, they often have interesting things to say, so the film worked for me at that level.The only problem I had with the movie is that Margot was obviously the perfect match for Gaspard.
The young man befriends a cute waitress Margot who secretly likes him but keeps things platonic as he is hoping to meet his love interest Lena.
The ending is a nice little twist which makes you smile and I sure hope you sit down with this film when you feel like a little summer vacation on the couch.
This film made me feel young again and it reminded me that a story can be engaging without being intense or in your face.
It may be understand as love-story, comedy or french movie who describe nothing with a rain of words.
Great story about a shy young man immersed in his music and not very happy with girls, who suddenly finds himself being courted by three women at once.
The film is slow and seemingly unpretentious giving the viewer just a couple of bits of information but the sincere acting and nice, true-to-life dialogs make you immediately forget this.
Another gem from Eric Rohmer who made his Four Seasons as tales of love at various ages and in various circumstances such a hit.
Gaspard is vacationing by the sea before starting his new engineer job, and he hopes to meet up with the girl he had known before.
And yet, some things remain the same...In Éric Rohmer's "A Summer's Tale," Gaspard has just completed a graduate degree in mathematics and during the short end-of-summer weeks before he is to start his new job, he heads to a small village on the northern coast of Brittany with a mutually-agreed but vague plan to meet the object of his infatuation, Léna.
Later Margot spots Gaspard on the beach and flirtatiously engages him in conversation, which is the start of a series of get-togethers during which the two talk about past, current and unrequited loves.
There is little in the setting to seduce the eye, the film feels low budget, and in fact, it likely could have been filmed anywhere scenic to similar effect, a credit to the script and acting.The principal shortcoming is that the moping Gaspard is an uncompelling figure and so too are the women, two of whom are self-centered and manipulative.
It is a struggle to care what happens to any of the characters or how the story resolves itself.Also, there are brief moments in two or three scenes in which direction of the actors seems apparent--one, for example, when Léna meets Gaspard on the beach before she castigates him and her body is nearly fully turned toward camera versus more partly to him, never mind the nonverbal language of dismissive rejection, and another during the all close-up footage of her and Gaspard playing volleyball.In sum, a well-acted, well-scripted film, recommended for those who might have liked Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise" and its two sequels..
A thoroughly self-absorbed French boy wonders why three lovely women aren't quite meeting all of his expectations.
Eric Rohmer has made some very sweet and intimate films but in this one he over analyzed young love until my head hurt.
I suppose the director wanted to do a movie about the confused feelings of some young people of today.
Most of the film sees our young hero involved in long walks and talks as he explores the moral issues of who to love and who to leave.
If a better lead had been cast to play Gaspard, I think this film could have been much, much better.
Some people wrote enthusiastic comments on this movie:"In all its subtlety and sincerity it is something that could happen to all of us" "What has impressed me about this movie is the realistic way the characters are portrayed" "The dialogues are extremely lifelike" "I sometimes forget that they are only characters and not people I call as personal friends"I don't think a Rohmer's movie is "just like life".
But, in a few occasions, I have met some people who believe that life is something like a Rohmer's movie and act so!Anyway, this is my humble opinion: if you enjoy long dialogues, long and significant silences, solipsist attitudes, and tons of deep-but-subtle-charming-interesting-mega-wonderful-but-common French human beings, "Conte d'ètè" is YOUR movie.P.D. Rohmer is celebrated as a director who never uses music in his movies.
*** MINOR SPOILER ABOUT A PREDICTABLE EVENT ***Hugely charming film that saw me fall for Amanda Langlet (Margot) within two minutes of her first appearance.