I think we can all agree that the main purpose behind cinema is to be entertaining, to be momentary periods where the audience can simply escape their day-to-day problems and just experience stories detached enough from reality to make us momentarily forget our outside woes, and leave our ordinary selves outside the cinema for just a few hours. However, cinema also has the ability to represent reality, showing us a side of life that is uncanny and real. A filmmaker that defined his entire career on his ability to represent reality and celebrate life as it truly is was Éric Rohmer, the influential French director of moving social dramas that may not make bold statements about life, but rather thrive on their capacity to be relentlessly realistic representations of things as they are, celebrations of existence. There are many filmmakers that have made quiet but passionate films that forego cinematic flair and rather deliver straightforward, bleakly simple stories about ordinary people undergoing their own personal, inconsequential trials and tribulations (the film I consider the greatest film ever made, Bicycle Thieves, is very much in this wheelhouse). Rohmer was distinctive for his films that told simple stories but had intense social commentary pulsating beneath the narrative, even though it isn’t overtly shown. One of his finest films is A Summer’s Tale (French: Conte d’été), a part of his four-part film series based around the four seasons, and it clearly exemplifies the director’s terrific skills at showing life as it is. What could be seen on the surface as a tedious film about uninteresting people is a sweepingly quaint romance film that is relentless in its masterful portrayal of life.

A Summer’s Tale is focused on Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud), a young man who has recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Mathematics and is about to start his first postgraduate career. However, he takes a short holiday to the seaside town of Dinard, where the going is easy, and everyone spends their days in the quaint restaurants or swimming on any of the beautiful beaches of the surrounding islands. Gaspard has two things on his mind – making music and falling in love, and he is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the woman he believes to be his girlfriend, Lena (Aurelia Nolin), but encounters a few snags in his plan to finally have her be his, coming the form of feminine distractions. The first is Margot (Amanda Langlet), a young woman with a doctorate in Ethnology, but passes her days as a waitress in a family restaurant. The second is Solene (Gwenaëlle Simon), a sensual, sociable individual who is more than willing to make irrational decisions, such as running away with someone she has barely just met. The two women put Gaspard in a romantic quandary, as they satisfy different cravings that the young man has – Margot is intelligent, enigmatic and thoughtful, while Solene is alluring, engaging and spontaneous. Moreover, both are very clearly in love with Gaspard, wanting him to choose them over the other. Of course, because life is not all that simple, Lena finally arrives, and proves that what Gaspard thought to be true was in fact quite possibly false information, but there is always the spark of love there, even if she is not quite so ready to admit it, and finds Gaspard’s fantasies of a romantic life together laughable but still fascinating upon second-thought. Gaspard’s vacation suddenly turns into a profoundly difficult quest to make the right decision, and being pulled in three different directions, he struggles to make the choice that will be the best for him, and his ultimate choice is perhaps the only logical one, as he sets forward on choosing himself over the subjects of his affection.

A film like A Summer’s Tale does not utilize cinematic panache in the telling of the story, which means it has to find its innovation through its screenplay and the performances. Rohmer wrote a terrific screenplay, but this film is made truly special by the quartet of performers who bring the story to life and embody Rohmer’s complex characters. The cast is led by the incredible Melvil Poupaud, who plays the quiet and reserved Gaspard perfectly, bringing out his insecurities and idiosyncrasies without playing him as a milquetoast or someone antisocial, but rather a character with definitive traits that cause the turmoil that informs most of this film. His “girlfriend” (meaning, it is his friend that just so happens to be a girl) is played marvellously by Aurelia Nolin, who has the smallest of the four central roles, but is able to play a character who is unlikable but realistic at the same time, and her portrayal of an air-headed but somehow sensible young woman is terrific. Gwenaëlle Simon is explosively great as the sensual Solene, who is able to be alluring but not oversexualized or the object of desire (Rohmer is too generous to portray these characters as any vapid archetype, even in the space of a romantic comedy). However, the person who impressed me the most with her performance was Amanda Langlet, who finds the perfect balance between intellectual and endearing with her characterization of the extremely smart but also very perceptive and empathetic Margot, who is ultimately the most emotionally-resonant character, being the only one of the three girls who seems to be a fitting lover for Gaspard, as while the others may satisfy him in terms of carnal desire, Margot provides him with intellectual stimulation as well as challenging him mentally. The four central performances in this film are all excellent, but standouts are Langlet and Poupaud, who have amazing chemistry as well as being the most realistic and grounded of the characters, giving committed but endearing performances.

A Summer’s Tale is a quite an interesting film because it is, first and foremost, a film about romance, but as I alluded to earlier, it could quite possibly be one of the most subversive comedies of its era, even though it isn’t packaged as such, is presented more as a simple drama about human relationships and the urge to feel romance, and how someone can feel conflicted when presented with different choices, especially such radially diverse ones. However, I’d argue that A Summer’s Tale is an excellent comedy of manners, and there are situations within this film that are light and joyful, and despite not necessarily eliciting many moments of tangible humor, there is an undeniable sense of irony that persists throughout this film, with the story itself being more akin to a broad comedy rather than a small social realist drama like A Summer’s Tale. The representations of romance in this film are astoundingly resonant, and while it may seem unrealistic for a character like Gaspard to somehow encounter three girls that seem almost unabashedly attracted to him, whether physically, emotionally or mentally, the way Rohmer presents the story is quite something, and he carefully manages to prevent any cliches that would find themselves at home in a film like this, avoiding the melodrama or the unrealistic circumstances that would often be shown in a film like this. In essence, A Summer’s Tale is a small and often very funny film about the limits of romance, and how one decision can change an individual’s entire life in a way. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more subversively romantic film than A Summer’s Tale, and how it manages to tell such a resonant story without overtly ostentatious brio is wonderful.

Rohmer is most well-known for his simple representations of life and celebrating the smallest nuances of humanity through his films. A Summer’s Tale is not an exception. Admittedly, I was initially reluctant to see this film, because there is a fine line between delicate and minimalistic representations of real life, and vapid, boring filmmaking, and despite being well-regarded, there was a sense that Rohmer’s stories were not necessarily the most exhilarating, it is intoxicating in its own modest way. Luckily (and unsurprisingly), A Summer’s Tale fits within the former category, and while it may not have the most thrilling premise nor the most energetic execution, it is extraordinarily moving, and Rohmer manages to show the hidden beauty of life and the trials and tribulations that many actually experience wonderfully. The film is almost entirely void of banality, and while it is not necessarily the most innovative of films, it is a quaint, eccentric and delightfully entertaining “slice of life” film, showing human nature in all its intricate complexities, presenting the audience with simple characters with fascinating but realistic motivations and traits, which makes this film one that is profoundly moving, but never manipulative or dishonest. I cannot think of a single moment in this film that rang false, and while it may not be a perfect film, it is a great character study, and its lucidity and absence of complication was refreshing, especially considering other films of this narrative ilk are often contrived and hackneyed and do not possess nearly the same terrific understanding of human nature as A Summer’s Tale.

A Summer’s Tale was a great start to my journey into the films of Éric Rohmer, who is a filmmaker I have been very interested in exploring for a while, and this particular film served to be a great introduction to his style and approach to telling stories. It is a simple and nuanced representation of life, and in lieu of traditional cinematic tropes or more reliable ways to execute a film like this, Rohmer constructs a story that is a bold portrayal of human existence, and how the interactions we have with others can have profound impact on ourselves, as well as the difficult decisions we are often faced with potentially changing our lives and setting us on a course that we did not expect. A Summer’s Tale is anything but predictable, and while it is straightforward, it is never dull, and what it lacks in visual flair, it more than compensates for in coherent and meaningful storytelling that may not be traditionally resonant, but rather daringly real and uncanny in how it represents reality. I have no doubt that Rohmer is one of the most important filmmakers of his generation, and his distinctive style, empathetic attention to human nature and wonderful ability to show things as they are makes him some whose films deserve more attention and acclaim from wider audiences, as his stories supercede the naturalistic and groundbreaking visual aesthetic. The brilliance of A Summer’s Tale lies in its tender and empathetic conveyance of realistic behavior, and it is ultimately a quaint but emotionally-resonant film, and the perfect example of the well-worn adage of “less is more”. A very special, and profoundly moving film.