A SUMMER'S TALE aka CONTE D'eTe
(TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS)

Year: 1996
UK: Artificial Eye
Cast: Melvil Poupaud, Aurelia Nolin, Amanda Langlet, Gwenaelle Simon, Aurelia Nolin, Aime Lefevre, Alain Guellaff, Evelyne Lahana, Yves Guerin, Franck Cabot.
Director: Eric Rohmer
Country: France
Language: French (English subtitles)
UK: 113 mins
UK Certificate: U
UK Release Date: 29 July 2005 (Limited Release - London)
UK Distributor

Synopsis

Eric Rohmer's, A SUMMER'S TALE aka CONTE D'eTe (1996), will play at the Chelsea Cinema for one week, 29 July - 4 August, to highlight the DVD release of the complete series of TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS.

This third part of the TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS charts the summer vacation of Gaspard, a young man who claims nothing ever happens in his life. But one summer, he discovers that nothing could be further from the truth. In Dinard, a seaside resort in rural Brittany, Gaspard becomes romantically entangled with three beautiful young women: his classmate Lena, waitress Margot, and the outgoing Solene, whom he meets at a party. As the girls' patience with him begins to wear thin, a confused Gaspard must make the difficult choice between them.

Eric Rohmer was one of the original critics writing for the influential French film journal Cahiers du Cinema and was also one of the founding members of the New Wave cinema movement of the 60s. Born Jean-Marie Maurice Scherer in 1920 in Nancy, France, he later moved to Paris and began his career as a teacher and writer. When he began to frequent Henri Langlois' Cinematheque Français, he adopted the pseudonym Eric Rohmer, an amalgam of the director Erich von Stroheim and Fu Manchu author Sax Rohmer. Rohmer edited Cahiers from 1956 to 1963 and wrote several celebrated essays on film theory and contributed to the development of the auteur theory, writing appraisals of filmmakers such as Jean Renoir and Hitchcock among others.

He made his feature debut in 1959 but it was not until a decade later that MY NIGHT WITH MAUD brought him international recognition. Many of Rohmer's films are divided into themes, such as the MORAL TALES (1962-72), the COMEDIES AND PROVERBS (1980-87) and the TALES OF THE FOUR SEASONS (1989-98), examining the moral, intellectual and romantic issues that face a set of highly articulate protagonists. Rohmer has also gained a reputation as a great director of women, often collaborating closely with his actresses. Working with modest budgets, eschewing star names and still adhering to his New Wave principles, Rohmer continues to work into his 80s.