moritzbonn-1 Conte d'été is just a great movie because it reflects how life is instead of demonstrating how it should or could be. 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 so brilliantly realistic almost like a documentary movie. However, this doesn't mean there is no interesting plot. 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. Also the director has a feeling for significant details. The music scenes are just great and the landscape is just wonderful. Now I think I have to discover the Bretagne myself.... Some may criticize that the protagonists seem so helpless and remain unsatisfied during the plot but as I said, this movie demonstrates how life is and not how it should be. This is a very important difference. Of course the end is somehow unsatisfying but this is life and from some point of view it's a happy ending, too. Apart from that, it's not correct calling Gaspard a dull person as many did. He's shy and he's an artist. He doesn't like to be in a group and so on. But his character which lead to this unusual behaviour makes him so interesting. He is not showing emotions very often but in every moment you can imagine he is in an inner struggle.

Howard Schumann Eric Rohmer's characters are often irritating and insufferable, yet they can likewise be charming and utterly irresistible. 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. Eventually, the young man digs himself quite a hole as he makes the same promise to all three women and is fearful of confronting them to explain. 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. Though his characters have plenty of flaws that are all too apparent, Rohmer does not judge or evaluate them but accepts them the way that they are -- so, for all their faults, I suppose we should as well.

jambosana *** MINOR SPOILER ABOUT A PREDICTABLE EVENT ***Hugely charming film that saw me fall for Amanda Langlet (Margot) within two minutes of her first appearance. Her smile is brighter than a flashbulb.I spent most of my time wishing I could jump up onto the screen but I couldn't decide if I'd hug the always radiant Margot or smack the gauche prat Gaspard for being so oafishly blind to her charms.Sure, it's typically French with it's "je pense, je parle, je fait rien" plot but it's a pleasure to be in the company of some of the characters.Oh, and did I mention that Amanda Langlet alone makes it worth the price of admission?

burneyfan 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. During those two weeks, however, he finds two other girl friendsor rather they find him. It must be his good-looks, it can't beanything else. First he is picked up in a restaurant by Margot, awaitress, who turns out not to be a waitress but an Ethnologist, justhelping out her aunt who owns the restaurant. 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. Why she doesn't fall inlove with him is easier to understand. (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. He is accepted warmlyinto her family, they all go sailing together and have a merrysing-a-long to one of his songs. But then, sadly, her true nature shows;she becomes aggressive and demanding, insisting that he take her to theisland of Quessant or their relationship is at an end. And now Lena, his`sort-of' girl friend, played by Aurelia Nolin, appears and insists thathe take her instead. He must now choose.Rohmer's films are never plot-dependent; he prefers to dwell on thecharacters, to bring us into a close, intimate relation with them, whilethey reveal themselves in talk. And when the characters are asattractive as Margot