1996, the best year in movie history, pt. 4: Conte d’été (A summer’s tale)
If you can’t go on vacation yourself, the next-best thing might be to watch the movies of Éric Rohmer. A lot of them are about French people on vacation. Sometimes, the characters go to the mountains; more often, they go to the beach.
One of Rohmer’s best movies in this vein is Le rayon vert (1986), in which a young woman struggles to choose which holiday resort to go to. Of course, her choice has existential significance.
That movie’s English title is Summer. It mustn’t be confused with A Summer’s Tale (1996), which, in French, is Conte d’été. This second movie is the one I’ll review.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Gaspard is a moody, tousle-headed youth. He has just completed his master’s degree and is about to join the workforce. But first, he’ll spend a few weeks with his guitar in the Breton beach town of Saint-Malo.
He arrives via the ferry and finds the room that he’s reserved for his stay. He falls into a routine. In the evenings, he composes folk songs about pirates’ daughters. But while the sun is out, he roams the beaches, peering out for Lena, his would-be girlfriend who’s agreed to meet him for a sojourn to the island of Ouessant (“Ushant” in English).
He neither sees nor hears from Lena. We gather that she wouldn’t be a reliable romantic partner. This impression is reinforced when she appears in the movie’s third act.
But then, how reliable is Gaspard? During this holiday, he involves himself with two other young women.
One of them, Solene, is the movie’s most straightforward character. She speaks and acts bluntly. A serial monogamist, she has no qualms about dumping a guy if he doesn’t live up to her standards. Having ended one relationship, she’s willing to begin a new one immediately.
(Only, she isn’t quite a monogamist, because she has two boyfriends at the same time.)
Gaspard’s other love interest, Margot, is another monogamist. Her boyfriend is away in the South Pacific – upon some other beach, the viewer surmises. Having a boyfriend doesn’t prevent Margot from taking up with Gaspard.
Day after day, Margot and Gaspard walk together along the coast and discuss matters of the heart. This is illicitly thrilling for them. They’ve agreed that since they’re romantically unavailable to each other, they can only be friends.
Of the three young women, Margot is on the screen the longest, and she’s the only one who cares about Gaspard for his own sake. This doesn’t mean that she forms the truest judgment of how Gaspard actually is. She vacillates between different interpretations of his character. (Solene, on the other hand, is brisk and scathing about Gaspard, and mostly correct.) What Margot sees in Gaspard is his potential.
It’s Margot whose life is in its summer. She isn’t so naïve or childish as a person in springtime, or as cynical as a person might become in autumn. She’s aware of numerous still-unrealized potentialities, and she’s drawn to what’s attractive in each. It’s ironic that Margot, the “unavailable” one, should be the most open to Gaspard (and to life).
Really, this is Margot’s movie. You can tell that Rohmer loves her. The actress, Amanda Langlet, also plays the titular character in one of Rohmer’s other great beach movies, Pauline à la plage (1983). As Pauline, Langlet is a child wise beyond her years, observing the foibles of her elders. As Margot, she’s grown up, still aware of those foibles, and now committing some of them because it’s hard for a person not to.
As for Gaspard: will he choose well? The movie gives a mixed verdict. During his holiday, he lacks the wisdom to make a good choice. By the end of it, though, there’s reason to think that someday he’ll do better.
One of Rohmer’s best movies in this vein is Le rayon vert (1986), in which a young woman struggles to choose which holiday resort to go to. Of course, her choice has existential significance.
That movie’s English title is Summer. It mustn’t be confused with A Summer’s Tale (1996), which, in French, is Conte d’été. This second movie is the one I’ll review.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Gaspard is a moody, tousle-headed youth. He has just completed his master’s degree and is about to join the workforce. But first, he’ll spend a few weeks with his guitar in the Breton beach town of Saint-Malo.
He arrives via the ferry and finds the room that he’s reserved for his stay. He falls into a routine. In the evenings, he composes folk songs about pirates’ daughters. But while the sun is out, he roams the beaches, peering out for Lena, his would-be girlfriend who’s agreed to meet him for a sojourn to the island of Ouessant (“Ushant” in English).
He neither sees nor hears from Lena. We gather that she wouldn’t be a reliable romantic partner. This impression is reinforced when she appears in the movie’s third act.
But then, how reliable is Gaspard? During this holiday, he involves himself with two other young women.
One of them, Solene, is the movie’s most straightforward character. She speaks and acts bluntly. A serial monogamist, she has no qualms about dumping a guy if he doesn’t live up to her standards. Having ended one relationship, she’s willing to begin a new one immediately.
(Only, she isn’t quite a monogamist, because she has two boyfriends at the same time.)
Gaspard’s other love interest, Margot, is another monogamist. Her boyfriend is away in the South Pacific – upon some other beach, the viewer surmises. Having a boyfriend doesn’t prevent Margot from taking up with Gaspard.
Day after day, Margot and Gaspard walk together along the coast and discuss matters of the heart. This is illicitly thrilling for them. They’ve agreed that since they’re romantically unavailable to each other, they can only be friends.
Of the three young women, Margot is on the screen the longest, and she’s the only one who cares about Gaspard for his own sake. This doesn’t mean that she forms the truest judgment of how Gaspard actually is. She vacillates between different interpretations of his character. (Solene, on the other hand, is brisk and scathing about Gaspard, and mostly correct.) What Margot sees in Gaspard is his potential.
It’s Margot whose life is in its summer. She isn’t so naïve or childish as a person in springtime, or as cynical as a person might become in autumn. She’s aware of numerous still-unrealized potentialities, and she’s drawn to what’s attractive in each. It’s ironic that Margot, the “unavailable” one, should be the most open to Gaspard (and to life).
Really, this is Margot’s movie. You can tell that Rohmer loves her. The actress, Amanda Langlet, also plays the titular character in one of Rohmer’s other great beach movies, Pauline à la plage (1983). As Pauline, Langlet is a child wise beyond her years, observing the foibles of her elders. As Margot, she’s grown up, still aware of those foibles, and now committing some of them because it’s hard for a person not to.
As for Gaspard: will he choose well? The movie gives a mixed verdict. During his holiday, he lacks the wisdom to make a good choice. By the end of it, though, there’s reason to think that someday he’ll do better.