| A Summer's Tale | |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Éric Rohmer |
| Producer: | Margaret Ménégoz |
| Cinematography: | Diane Baratier |
| Editing: | Mary Stephen |
| Distributor: | Les films du losange |
| Runtime: | 113 minutes |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
| Gross: | $198,126 (United States only)[1] |
A Summer's Tale (French: '''Conte d'été''') is a 1996 French romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Éric Rohmer. It is the third film in his Contes des quatre saisons (Tales of the Four Seasons) series, which also includes A Tale of Springtime (1990), A Tale of Winter (1992), and Autumn Tale (1998). A Summer's Tale stars Amanda Langlet, Melvil Poupaud, Aurélia Nolin and Gwenaëlle Simon.
The plot is loosely based on Rohmer's experiences as a young film student and his various relationships.
The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.[2]
Gaspard, a mathematics graduate and musician, is on summer holiday by the seaside in Dinard. He arrives alone and spends all his time in his friend's empty flat composing music and walking around the town. He meets Margot, a cheerful waitress, at a restaurant. Despite his initial reluctance, they soon become friends and meet daily to walk around the area. Margot has a PhD in ethnology, and conducts research interviews with local Bretons in her spare time. Gaspard has an on again/off again girlfriend, Léna, who is planning to visit Dinard. Margot tells him that she has a long-distance boyfriend. Gaspard speaks of his confused relationship with Léna while Margot offers advice. Gaspard clumsily tries to kiss Margot, which she lightheartedly brushes off. Margot takes Gaspard on a research trip to a local fisherman's house to discuss maritime folk songs. Gaspard is inspired by the fisherman's stories and writes his own sea shanty, a diversion from his typical blues music.
Gaspard joins Margot's friends for a night of dancing at a local bar where he feels out of place. One of Margot's friends, Solène, notices him and happens to run into him alone at the beach the next day. Solène is sensual, confident, and straightforward. She invites him to go sailing on her uncle's boat. Solène, a former choir singer, shows interest in Gaspard's music and he teaches her the sea-shanty he has written. Her attraction to him and his musical talent boosts his low self-esteem with women. Solène, who just broke up with two suitors herself, has rigid ideas of commitment and the romantic process and Gaspard falls into line as she becomes his best option at the moment. They decide to take a trip to Ouessant, an island off the tip of Brittany, the next week.
By chance, Léna finds Gaspard at the beach and appears genuinely excited to see him after the long delay. Gaspard, who has been flummoxed by Léna's standoffish behavior in the past, is delighted at her renewed interest in him and begins to set the stage to renege on the vacation with Solène. Gaspard and Margot talk about his growing dilemma, while Margot slowly becomes part of this same dilemma. Margot questions his tendency to go along with whichever girl he happens to be with at the time. She questions whether he is cunning and manipulative, or simply a weak fool. His inability to commit to a choice leads Gaspard into the trap of double-booking the trip with both Léna and Solène.
Later, Léna, in a moody outburst, professes that she is not in love with Gaspard and departs in anger. It appears to Gaspard that his only option is Solène, but on a walk with Margot, he again kisses her and this time it is reciprocated. Tired of Léna's moods and Solène's pressure, Gaspard then tells Margot he wants to travel with her to Ouessant as he realizes their relationship is more honest and caring.
Léna calls Gaspard at home, apologising for her behavior and re-inviting herself back to Ouessant. Solène also calls, committing to the trip and then hanging up abruptly before Gaspard can respond. Gaspard now has a major dilemma since he has promised all three women he would take them to Ouessant. Luckily, a friend calls him to inform him of a man in Rennes who wants to sell Gaspard some recording equipment. It's an offer too good to pass up and he decides to leave town and not confront his problems.
Gaspard asks Margot to meet him at the ferry to Saint Malo before he departs, where he explains the situation. Margot then tells Gaspard that her boyfriend is imminently returning, and that they will go to Ouessant. Gaspard is surprised at the news, assuming that Margot would always be there for him, and they half-heartedly make vague plans to meet in future. As they walk down the ramp to the boat, they say their goodbyes and kiss passionately, leaving their romantic feelings unresolved. Margot waves as the boat pulls out, before walking away. As Gaspard's boat sails off, the old sea-shanty "Santiano" plays.
A Summer's Tale is considered one of Rohmer's more conventional films due to its autobiographical nature. Rohmer's use of a male protagonist is somewhat of a departure from his earlier films, and is evidence for the idea that he put many of his own ideas into the mouth of Gaspard during his long discussions with Margot.[3] The film's youthful characters obsess over their self-image and group dynamics and the overarching theme is how romantic relationships define self-image and projection of self worth.[4] Gaspard sees Léna, regardless of her behavior, as a better business decision. Solène is trying to redefine her "townie" image with an upgrade to a moody, mysterious artist, Léna is profoundly dissatisfied with Gaspard being her best option in life. The most confident of the four characters, Margot, seems to be patiently waiting for Gaspard to find himself and discover her love.
The filming is mostly on the tourist beaches, except when Margot extracts Gaspard for excursions out of his comfort zone. We do not see Gaspard's relationships with Solène or Léna as extending past the beach, the water, and other places commonly frequented by tourists. In contrast, Margot and Gaspard's long walks and conversations lead them outside of the tourist areas and into the countryside. All characters seem to be in constant motion, restlessly wandering, hiking, or simply pacing the room, in reference to the impatience and spontaneity of youth. Gaspard is conscious of his own isolation, and confides his dislike of groups to Margot, and yet the viewer can see that his isolation is of his own making. Indeed, the first seven minutes of the film feature no dialogue at all, which is a record for Rohmer's films, surpassing even the five minutes of initial silence in his 1990 film, A Tale of Springtime. The film's beginning follows Gaspard's silent, solitary wanderings on his first day in town, and he sometimes makes up excuses to be by himself throughout the film. Gaspard sees this as a protest against superficiality, but deeper analysis shows it may just be a way for him to protect his ego.[5]
Rohmer's use of clothing appears to be a metaphor for the personalities which Gaspard has to choose from. After the first scene at the beach, Gaspard does not see Margot in swimwear again. Her attire is loose, casual and she even appears in pajamas in a later scene. Her skirts are often short, and she appears to use her legs to flirt with the oblivious Gaspard. Léna and Solène's personalities seem to drift with the clothing choices. Léna is accepting, sexual and embracing in her bikini, but cold, uptight and angry in her street clothes. In a similar fashion, the provocative Solène is more hot-headed and quicker to anger when she appears in street clothes. Likewise are the three women closely associated with different places: Margot is most often shown along the coastline, Léna is usually seen at the beach, and Solène indoors.[6]
Time plays an important role in the film: title-cards show the date each day from 17 July to 6 August. Gaspard tracks how many days late Léna is, while walking with Margot and scanning the beaches for her. Characteristically of Rohmer's films, time is shown highly linearly. Gaspard is shown to be extremely conscious of time constraints: he has a date on which he must leave for his new job in Nantes and is upset at Léna for going on an unplanned trip to Jersey with her cousins, on the grounds that it leaves them with too little time to visit Ouessant together. Waiting, especially for those with whom one has a relationship with, is also a theme of the film. Gaspard is waiting for Léna to arrive, and once she does arrive, he waits for her to return from her unplanned family trip to Jersey. And Solène also waits, for Gaspard to decide to go to Ouessant with her, oblivious to the promises he made to the other women. Most significantly, Margot describes herself as waiting "like a sailor's wife" for her boyfriend across the world.[7]
Like time, place is also important in the film. A strong sense of place is a common theme of Rohmer's Tales of the Four Seasons, and the movements of the characters are clearly signposted. The names of cafes, nightclubs, or towns are made clear in cinematography and dialogue. During their conversations, we learn that Gaspard is from Rennes, and that he is about to take a job with a design firm in Nantes. Margot is from Saint-Brieuc, an hour west of Dinard. On their walks, Margot takes pleasure in showing Gaspard around the area she knows so well, such as towns, islands, and landmarks, such as the Solidor Tower, across the river Rance. Margot is also the most mobile of Gaspard's love interests: she drives him to neighbouring Saint-Lunaire, and Margot is the only one of the three women who "wanders onto all three of these stages", as she is seen in the locations closely associated with Léna and Solène, but the reverse does not occur.
Rohmer's films have been noted to have a circular structure, and A Summer's Tale is an excellent example of this. Crisp writes that his films have "an extensive central element constituting a 'digression' or hole in time through which the temptation of the temporal intrudes. The digression will seem to promise escape from a trap which the protagonist feels closing around him or her, but will come to be seen rather as itself a trap from which the protagonist must escape."[8] Despite being written ten years prior to the release of A Summer's Tale, these elements are obvious in this film. Gaspard departs the town at the end of the film in exactly the same way in which he arrived, via the ferry. His holiday really is a 'hole in time', being used to fill a gap before his new career begins. And the commitments he made to the three women ends with him being caught in a trap: he must choose one and disappoint two others. Unexpectedly, a friend calls with a deal too good to refuse, which allows Gaspard to escape this trap which he has created, albeit in a less than honourable way.
Other typically Rohmerian themes present here include the ideas of self-deception and coincidence, especially applied to a protagonist who does something unexpected while waiting for someone else, and then has to make a difficult choice. Gaspard came to Dinard to wait for Léna, but he develops a close friendship with Margot and has a romance with Solène. When Léna unexpectedly appears, Gaspard is caught in a trap of his own making. To Solène, Gaspard downplays his relationship with Léna. When Solène or Léna show him kindness, Gaspard effusively praises them to Margot. And when they fight, Gaspard becomes extremely pessimistic about their prospects. Margot speaks for the viewer when she says that she fails to understand Gaspard: is he passively trying to keep his romantic interests by pleasing them, or is he a cunning game-player with a plan? Is he deceiving these women, or is he deceiving himself? And who is the substitute for whom? The answers to these questions are left open to the viewer's interpretation.
The film was shot on location in the seaside towns of Dinard, Saint Malo and Saint Lunaire, early in the summer of 1995 to avoid the tourists. Melvil Poupaud recalled Rohmer shooting long single takes, not wanting actors to rehearse too much so that their lines would stay fresh. The tourists that were present mostly ignored the presence of the small film crew.
Rohmer gave permission for the film's production manager Françoise Etchegaray to film the making of A Summer's Tale. This is the only time the shooting of a Rohmer film was itself recorded. Jean-André Fieschi was given the footage for editing after a chance meeting with Etchegaray in late 1995, but the completed 90 minute documentary lay forgotten for ten years. Named La Fabrique du Conte d’été ("The making of A Summer's Tale"), Rohmer agreed to release it in 2006.[9] It has been included in several French and English DVD releases of the film.[10]
Typically for Rohmer, there is no extradiegetic music in the film, except for the final scene. The sea-shanty "Corsair's Daughter" which Gaspard writes during the course of the film was written by Rohmer, who credited himself under the pseudonym "Sébastien Erms", as he had done for music he had composed for his previous films.[11]
In 1996, due to various economic issues with independent movie theaters and home video, the film was not released in the United States along with many other foreign films.[12] It finally received a limited release on 20 June 2014.