Looking at the picture’s mostly sun-drenched and drolly cheerful surface layer, one marvels at Rohmer’s unerring sense of what drama kings and queens young people can be.
A Summer's Tale(Conte d'été)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France · 1996
Rated G · 1h 53m
Director Éric Rohmer
Starring Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon, Aurelia Nolin
Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Gaspard is a recent university graduate who travels to Bretagne for vacation. He hoped that his sort-of girlfriend could accompany him but alas, no luck. But when he becomes interested in someone new in Bretagne, his love life only becomes more complicated.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Whether it's the closest you'll get to the beach this year, or you have to tear yourself away from the dunes to enjoy it, it's an essential part of any movie-lover's summer.
Entertainment Weekly by Chris Nashawaty
Eric Rohmer’s sun-kissed love quadrangle remains as fresh and romantically profound as it was 18 years ago.
Village Voice by Jonathan Kiefer
The Rohmer touch consists of nonchalance and effortless sensuality, not just in the people, but also in the landscape, somehow even in the air.
Rohmer has a genius for taking a seemingly mundane situation and slowly tightening the screws.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
It may seem like nothing much is happening on-screen, but by the time A Summer's Tale is all over, it feels like everything important has been said and done. Welcome to the magic of Rohmer, one final time.
Washington Post by Mark Jenkins
Like most of Rohmer’s movies, A Summer’s Tale is comic, humane and much more complicated than it seems at first. The fresh-faced actors, realistic dialogue and naturalistic performances suggest a casual approach, but as the story progresses, the filmmaker’s control is increasingly evident.
Slant Magazine by Nick McCarthy
A Summer's Tale's linear structure and sense of observation is simple yet inspired.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
A Summer’s Tale has room to focus on Rohmer’s brilliance at revealing human nature through articulate, multidimensional characters, perfectly cast, who in some ways seem to exist outside of time.
The thoughts may not be profound, but they are profoundly true to life,and the writer-director’s approach to young people’s concerns is remarkably universal and timeless.
Users who liked this film also liked
An Autumn Tale
(Conte d'automne)
A widowed winemaker's friends try to find her a new husband by placing a lonely hearts ad in the paper.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1998
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Marie Rivière, Béatrice Romand, Alain Libolt, Didier Sandre, Alexia Portal, Aurélia Alcaïs
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
A Tale of Winter
(Conte d'hiver)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1992
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Charlotte Véry, Frédéric van den Driessche, Michel Voletti, Hervé Furic, Ava Loraschi, Christiane Desbois
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Before the Rain
(Пред дождот)
Three interconnected stories of love under the threat of civil war in Macedonia and London.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, France, North Macedonia • 1994
- Director Milcho Manchevski
- Cast Katrin Cartlidge, Rade Šerbedžija, Grégoire Colin, Labina Mitevska, Phyllida Law, Silvija Stojanovska
- Genre Drama, War
- Available on Criterion Channel
The Aviator's Wife
(La Femme de l'aviateur)
A young sees his girlfriend walking out of her apartment with another man, and secretly follows the man to investigate.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1981
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Philippe Marlaud, Marie Rivière, Anne-Laure Meury, Mathieu Carrière, Philippe Caroit, Coralie Clément
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Metrograph, Amazon Video, Hoopla
A Tale of Springtime
(Conte de printemps)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1990
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Anne Teyssèdre, Hugues Quester, Florence Darel, Eloïse Bennett, Sophie Robin, Marc Lelou
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
All That... for This?!
(Tout ça... pour ça !)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Canada • 1993
- Director Claude Lelouch
- Cast Fabrice Luchini, Vincent Lindon, Jacques Gamblin, Francis Huster, Marie-Sophie L., Gérard Darmon
- Genre Comedy, Crime, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Extraordinary
In a world where coming of age means receiving a superpower, Jen's a 25-year old who might be the only one in the world without one.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2023
- Creator Emma Moran
- Cast Mairéad Tyers, Sofia Oxenham, Bilal Hasna, Luke Rollason
- Genre Action & Adventure, Comedy
- Available on Hulu
The Green Ray
(Le rayon vert)
A lonely Parisian woman comes to terms with her isolation and anxieties during a long summer vacation.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1986
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Marie Rivière, Amira Chemakhi, Sylvie Richez, María Luisa García, Béatrice Romand, Rosette
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
North West Frontier
Two people trapped by fate. In a country with no destiny.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 1959
- Director J. Lee Thompson
- Cast Kenneth More, Lauren Bacall, Herbert Lom, Wilfrid Hyde-White, I.S. Johar, Ursula Jeans
- Genre Adventure
- Available on FlixFling, Tubi TV, Plex, Plex Channel
Conspirators of Pleasure
(Spiklenci slasti)
Six outwardly average individuals have elaborate fetishes they indulge in with surreptitious care.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Czech Republic, Switzerland, United Kingdom • 1996
- Director Jan Švankmajer
- Cast Petr Meissel, Gabriela Wilhelmová, Barbora Hrzánová, Anna Wetlinská, Pavel Nový, Jiří Lábus
- Genre Drama, Animation, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Rendezvous in Paris
(Les Rendez-vous de Paris)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1995
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Clara Bellar, Antoine Basler, Mathias Mégard, Judith Chancel, Malcolm Conrath, Cécile Parès
- Genre Romance, Comedy, Drama
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Amazon Video, Freevee, Kanopy
The Bakery Girl of Monceau
(La Boulangère de Monceau)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Algeria • 1963
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Barbet Schroeder, Claudine Soubrier, Michèle Girardon, Michel Mardore, Fred Junck, Bertrand Tavernier
- Genre Romance
- Available on Criterion Channel
The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque
(L'Arbre, le Maire et la Médiathèque)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1993
- Director Éric Rohmer
- Cast Pascal Greggory, Arielle Dombasle, Fabrice Luchini, Clémentine Amouroux, François-Marie Banier, Michel Jaouen
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Child's Pose
(Poziţia copilului)
After the accidental killing of a boy in a car crash, the mother tries to prevent her son being charged for the death, and she refuses to accept that her son is a grown-up man.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Romania • 2013
- Director Călin Peter Netzer
- Cast Vlad Ivanov, Luminița Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache, Florin Zamfirescu, Mimi Brănescu, Tania Popa
- Genre Drama
- Available on Apple TV, Kanopy
The Last of the Unjust
(Le Dernier des Injustes)
The story of Benjamin Murmelstein, the only ‘Elder of the Jews’ to survive WWII, and the last president of the Jewish council in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Austria • 2013
- Director Claude Lanzmann
- Cast Benjamin Murmelstein, Claude Lanzmann
- Genre Documentary
- Available on Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, Kanopy
The Image Book
(Le livre d'image)
Social commentary and cinema’s depiction of the Arab World
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Switzerland, France • 2018
- Director Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast Jean-Luc Godard, Anne-Marie Miéville, Dimitri Basil
- Genre Drama, Documentary
- Available on Metrograph, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, YouTube, Kanopy, Plex Channel
July Tales
(Contes de Juillet)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2018
- Director Guillaume Brac
- Cast Hanne Mathisen Haga, Andrea Romano, Sipan Mouradian, Milena Csergo, Lucie Grunstein, Salomé Diénis Meulien
- Genre Drama, Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Woman Who Ran
(도망친 여자)
When her husband goes away on business, a woman visits her friends to ruminate over marriage, closeness, and the shapes of their friendships.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Korea • 2020
- Director Hong Sang-soo
- Cast Kim Min-hee, Seo Young-hwa, Song Seon-mi, Kim Sae-byuk, Kwon Hae-hyo, Lee Eun-mi
- Genre Drama
- Available on Metrograph, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube
Brats
How did the actors of the famous “Brat Pack” of the 1980s feel about their “bratty” label?
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United States • 2024
- Director Andrew McCarthy
- Cast
- Genre
- Available on Hulu, Disney Plus