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
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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.
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