Autumn Tale [Conte d’automne] **** (1998, Marie Rivière, Béatrice Romand, Alain Libolt, Didier Sandre) – Classic Movie Review 9462

Autumn Tale [Conte d’automne] (1998) is the last of Éric Rohmer’s four seasonal tales, preceded by A Tale of Springtime, A Tale of Winter and A Summer’s Tale. It is the fourth film of his last series: The Tales of The Four Seasons. It is the tale two women, living in a beautiful countryside town in the south of France, searching for love and joy, but afflicted by life’s misunderstandings and coincidences.

Marie Rivière stars as long married Isabelle, who decides to find a new husband for her widowed best friend Magali (Béatrice Romand), a middle-aged wine producer. She posts an ad in the local south of France newspaper and finds a nice man, Gérald (Alain Libolt), whom Magali meets at Isabelle’s daughter’s wedding. But the ad has attracted another possibility, Etienne (Didier Sandre).

The two star performances, Rohmer’s plotting and dialogue, and Diane Baratier’s cinematography are as beautiful as the French countryside. Masterly and superbly subtle, warm and knowing, it is such a pleasurable film.

It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 7 September 1998, where it won the award for Best Screenplay, and was shown at London Film Festival on 15 November 1998.

Marie Rivière plays is also in Eric Rohmer’s The Aviator’s Wife (1981) and The Green Ray (1986), while Béatrice Romand is in Claire’s Knee (1970) and A Good Marriage (1982).

Before this series of four, Rohmer made two series of six films: The Moral Tales and Comédies et Proverbes [Comedies and Proverbs].

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9462

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