Conte d'automne

"Autumn Tale" is one of those movies where the viewer is asked to eavesdrop on normal people doing normal things. Europeans, notably the French, seem to do it best. It's a tricky approach to movie making; the margins for success are so narrow. Luckily, Mr. Rohmer, the director, is spot-on in this movie. The plot is a trifle; Isabelle and Magali are middle-aged women and livelong friends. Both are content with their families and careers. But Isabelle thinks that the widowed Magali needs a man, as does Magali's son's girlfriend. Independently, and unknowing to Magali and to each other, they conspire to set her up with a romantic interest. That's it. Mr. Rohmer, his screenwriter, and the top-notch actors brew up an enjoyable movie that's a treat to watch. I recommend it highly.

This was a little film with a simple plot and likable characters. In fact, Hollywood would learn a lot from films like this. It's not the dynamic plot, special effects or big name stars that often make a film exceptional, it's the writing and the acting! And this movie is written so lovingly and acted so honestly that I couldn't help but like it. This, despite the notable absence of the sensational elements in the movie, made for a wonderful film. Think about it--the basic plot is an older woman who owns her own small winery is lonely. So, her friend tries to find a man for her and so does her grown child. Talk about your simple plot! And yet it works! So if you are in the mood for something different, give this movie a try.

For this, the last of his Tales of the Four Seasons, Eric Rohmer chose the somewhat pastoral setting of a vineyard in French wine country. It's the story of a middle aged winemaker who wants to find a man but isn't willing to look for one; essentially she hopes to encounter the perfect man by chance but she severely limits the likelihood of a meeting because she rarely ventures away from her work/home. Her two friends (who always visit her, never vice versa) each try to set her up with a man. Her older friend attempts to deceive her into thinking the man she has picked is a chance encounter while her younger friend, who happens also be dating her son, makes her intentions clear.

Essentially what Rohmer is saying with this film is that passively expecting things to happen without working for them in any way is foolish. Faith is a key theme in Rohmer's work and this might be taken as a sort of critique of blind faith. When the winemaker is thrust into these romantic entanglements she reacts like a petulant child instead of a mature adult. The logical plans of her wordly friends are a sharp contrast to her own naivety. Still, this isn't some cold rejection of her character; in spite of her flaws the winemaker still has some admirable traits and things work out well for her. This is the difference between Rohmer and certain other directors who attempt to analyze human nature: he never lets his ideas overcome the realistic boundaries of human behavior and thus avoids the all too common pitfalls of misanthropy and didacticism.

Like almost every Rohmer film I've seen, An Autumn's Tale expresses some truths about human nature with a captivating realism. However, this film didn't really speak to me the way some of his films do because I ultimately don't have much in common with the winemaker. It's still well worth watching, especially for people who have more in common with the central character.

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.

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".