Eric Rohmer
Racconto d'Estate

Along the damp beaches at low tide in Brittany, the story of the insecure mathematician Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) unfolds; he arrives in the North of France to steal a few days from the elusive and irritating Lena (Aurélia Nolin), who has promised him a sliver of her time between one trip and another. By chance, in a local venue, he meets the ethnologist Margot (Amanda Langlet), who enters his thoughts during long walks, with piercing dialogues that bring out, among controlled desire and a small metered passion, the mosaic of contradictions that have slowly led him to indecisiveness in his young life. Adding to the complication is the seemingly uninhibited Solene (Gwenaelle Simon), who teases and prods him between ephemeral expectations that never materialize into concrete acts of passion.

Second-to-last chapter in the series "Tales of the Four Seasons", Rohmer, after two colder and more philosophical chapters (Winter and Spring), opens up to the summer passion in which it is not so much the heat that moves the strings under the sparse sun of Northern France, but rather the beach which, with its seemingly endless length, suggests infinite possibilities of choice to our Gaspard. Not surprisingly, the young mathematician and musician's attention focuses on a multi-day trip he wishes to make to the island of Ouessant, a trip he proposes in turn to all three of his female acquaintances without worrying too much about inconsistencies. Gaspard is insecure and confining his love choice of a summer to an island seems to him the most appropriate way to solve a broader complex tangle, whose key solution perhaps lies in a more instinctive choice, less rational and probabilistic. Rohmer brings us back to a more grounded dialogue after the great philosophical digressions of "A Tale of Springtime." Margot is interested in the human aspect of Gaspard's adventures; for her, all human beings are worthy of attention, and her exile in Brittany, for study reasons, significantly influences her analysis of romantic affairs. Apparently faithful to her distant boyfriend, "at the antipodes in the true sense of the word," she enjoys playing with Gaspard's impulses, pleasantly manipulating them without giving too many false hopes. It's interesting how Rohmer revisits Amanda Langlet in a "beach" role after the gem "Pauline at the Beach" of 1983. It's as if a grown-up Pauline returns to the place of her first loves, more aware and in charge of her feelings and her body. Rohmer's cinema is, after all, very sensual, with love made with the mind as well as the body, but there is room for games and small provocations, like Margot bending her leg in front of Gaspard, hinting at her full potential sensual charge. Indeed, Rohmer, like Truffaut, has a real obsession with women's legs, and in much of his cinema this is manifestly clear. The other two female figures are less interesting, more faded characters among the dark shades of excessive, irritating, and rude self-esteem and unabashed arrogance. Gaspard will make his choice, but not everything can resolve the way we wish.