Conte d'automne

Eric Rohmer is very well known all around the world; He was one of the directors who formed the French New Wave in the late 50's - early 60's, but after that he found his own path. The path he went through with more determination than anyone. Autumn Tale is the last film of his last series: The Tales of The Four Seasons. Before this series of four he made two series of six films; The Moral Tales and Comedies & Proverbs. Autumn Tale is a very beautiful film cinematographically as it is narratively, from the 78-year-old master.

Through his whole career, Eric Rohmer had the ability of making much from little ingredients. His films always had a low-budget, he often used the same cast & crew for his own production company Les Films du Losange. He never worked with mainstream actors/actresses and he used real filming locations with his own scripts.

Eric Rohmer always tried to reach to as realistic dialog as possible. He sometimes recorded his actresses' discussions on their free time, to get to know the way, that certain aged people talked in the time. Rohmer usually wrote the dialogs himself, but it many have told that much had been left on the level of improvisation.

Autumn Tale is about two women, who have been best friends for decades; Isabelle (Marie Rivière) and Magali (Béatrice Romand). Magali, a widow, has isolated in her countryside house where she works as a wine producer. She has given up hope in finding new love. Her friend Isabelle has been married for 25 years and wants to help Magali. This is the basic plot the film builds around, on misunderstandings and coincidences.

Because Rohmer wrote a lot of surveys, articles and books about the state of film, one shouldn't watch his films without paying attention to this. Autumn Tale is about wine harvest, this can easily be reflected to the plot. The characters live in a beautiful countryside town, which landscapes they adore. But all of them are aware and keep an eye on the modernization of it. This reflects to Magali's way of respecting the old ways of wine production.

Autumn Tale is a beautiful story of friendship, loneliness, searching and finding the love and joy in one's life. An interesting perspective on this story is to compare it with Rohmer's earlier films. As I mentioned earlier he often used the same actresses and the thing why one can compare these characters with others is because they are very much alike. Marie Riviere (Isabelle) plays similar roles in Eric Rohmer's The Aviator's Wife (1980) and The Green Ray (1986). Then Beatrice Roman (Magali) in Claire's Knee (1970) and Wonderful Marriage (1981). What makes these characters similar is that they all are looking for men. For something new in their lives.

Even that Eric Rohmer did some films in the 21st century it's quite interesting to watch Autumn Tale as a reflection of his career. Since it is his last film in the 20th century. Thank you for reading and I hope you'll enjoy Autumn Tale, a beautiful film about harvesting and finding something new.

"Autumn Tale" is a friendly, rambling french film. Beautiful visuals. And, as always, the french have a realistic, sanguine approach to female and male beauty, where the women of the film are not hollywood-ized, but their natural beauty is enhanced by the french countryside's autumanl splendor. One middle aged woman plays matchmaker for her friend, but does not tell her she's placed an ad in the personals. Someone else plays matchmaker, and then threads of story lines appear and vanish like possible lovers come and gone. Rhomer is not a natural storyteller, but this film is not terribly amibitious or weighty, but a golden, good-natured romp through french womens' psychees and sweet taut clothing. The female leads are compelling and edible, again, because the french love to present beauty through the lens of reality and possibilty. Tasteful lust. Realistic. Wild, dionescian hair on the earthmother, tilted uterus'd owner of the winery. Tres elegante is her friend living a bit vicariously through her man-hunt. Fun film but don't expect a great story here. But, oooo la la, what curves and sex have the women of middle-aged france.

I was working on my computer with the tv nearby, and I happened upon a French film on cable. I didn't think I was particularly in the mood to read subtitles, but as I glanced at the screen, bits of the story began to pull me in. Before I knew it, over an hour and a half had passed.

I wasn't familiar with any of the actors, which probably made the story of two very good friends and their loved ones even more compelling to me. Now I'd be interested in seeing anything else featuring Marie Rivière or Béatrice Romand. Rivière was engaging as a vulnerable yet capable business woman, and Romand had a quiet and powerful energy as a widow who seems to have retreated into the "safety" of working on her vineyard.

Romand made me laugh at times with her moments of "attitude" and temper, and Rivière kept me guessing what was coming next. The story unfolded nicely. I found myself on the edge of my seat much of the time. The story is somewhat of a cautionary tale in some ways, yet very realistic in terms of human nature and relationships.

There were some actions and situations I found to be less than appropriate, but in some ways the screenwriter seems to possibly have the same view...

This movie is a must-see for people interested in the politics of dating, match-making, romance, and friendship.

This one filled me with so much joy, a fellow viewer asked me to stay still on my chair. Last time I felt like it, I was watching Rear window. Beside, you get to see France grape farm in fall and 45 year old actress who played in other Rohmer flicks as teens and young adults. Just as long-lost friends who are going through same life cycle as I, the viewer. Probably the last of elderly Rohmer flick. Last scene during end-titles feels like a farewell to his public. I'll miss your flicks Eric. Thanks for everything.

It is autumn in the Rhone valley and grapes are being harvested. Magali (Beatrice Romand), the owner of a small vineyard inherited from her parents, lives alone and attends to her vineyard with the same care she gives to her frizzy black hair. She tells her best friend Isabelle (Marie Riviére), a librarian, that she has no interest in meeting men. "At my age," she says, "it's easier to find buried treasure." Isabelle, however, has her own ideas on the subject and takes out an ad in the local paper to find a suitable partner for her friend. Winner of won the award for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival, Eric Rohmer's An Autumn Tale, the final film in his Four Seasons series, is about matchmaking but this time it is about the need for companionship of older women with grown children.

Like many Rohmer films, a complex web of events and relationships arise from seemingly simple acts of friendship. Isabelle meets Gérald (Alain Libolt), a courteous and laid back salesman through her ad and goes to lunch with him a few times enjoying the idea that she can be still be seductive. After toying with the notion of keeping him for herself, she finally confesses that she is happily married and the whole seduction routine was simply a ploy to introduce him to her best friend Magali. The situation becomes further complicated by the desires of Rosine (Alexia Portal), her son Leo's (Stephane Damon) girlfriend, to set her up with her ex boyfriend Etienne (Diedier Sandre) a philosophy teacher with a penchant for younger women.

Unaware of the others matchmaking efforts, in a true Shakespearean twist, both Gerard and Etienne are invited to the wedding reception for Isabelle's daughter Emilia (Arelia Alcais) and the way it works itself out is delightful to observe. None of this of course unfolds according to plan but the beauty of the film is not the plot but the gradual development of complex three-dimensional characters through typically Rohmerian intelligent and witty dialogue. An Autumn Tale, though it contains some fanciful romantic intrigue, unfolds in a spirit of playful adventure, without guile or mean-spiritedness. Like the conclusion of Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man, we smile for no reason and Rohmer leaves us with a dance of joy and a final song: "If life is a journey, we hope your weather's fair, wild flowers are green and blue, travel safely, all of you".