Movie Reviews

Autumn Tale

31 Mar 2000

For all we might hear about the exotic glamour of French cinema, it is actually more likely to convey an everyday world, with its everyday events, than almost anything from Hollywood, or even Australia. At the same time, a good French film shows us the ordinary world with such style, such visual panache, that it all seems rather extraordinary.

Autumn Tale (Conte d'Automne) is last in the "Tales of the Four Seasons" series, written and directed by the indefatigable Eric Rohmer (who turns 80 next month). Like most of his work, this is a romance of seemingly effortless beauty, enhanced by some naturalistic performances. The people in this film are attractive, but nobody looks like a supermodel. The scenery, mainly of the autumn countryside near the Rhone, is lovely, but not as glamorous as a set from the average Hollywood epic.

Magali (Beatrice Romand, best-known as the teenage ???? of Rohmer's 1970 classic, Claire's Knee) is a widowed, 40-something vintner, feeling lonely in her remote country vineyard. While she admits to a desire for companionship, she has no idea where to look.

Fortunately, two of her friends are all-too-willing to play Cupid: her urbane, sophisticated friend Isabelle (Marie Riviere, another Rohmer regular) and her son's spirited, 20-year-old girlfriend, Rosine (newcomer Alexia Portal). Both are confident women, with their own foolproof plans. The problem is that they are working independently, each with a different man in mind. But they have their friend's happiness at heart. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, plenty, of course. But this being a French romantic comedy, very little does. Another film-maker, presented with this situation, could turn the into a chaotic slapstick farce. Rohmer allows it to fall together, as everyone surrenders cheerfully to their fates, with only the bare amount of conflict.

It is all so appealing that one can forgive the story which is (by Rohmer's standards) slight and inconsequential. In the end, it is a sweet tale about finding true love later in life, hence the (somewhat laboured) metaphor of wine and late vintages. Perhaps Isabelle's confidence lies in the fact that she is working to a divine plan, where everything is destined to fall into place.