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| Directed by Eric Rohmer; Starring Marie Rivière, Béatrice Romand, Alain Libolt, Didier Sandre, Alexia Portal, Stéphane Darmon, Aurélia Alcais, Matthieu Davette, and Yves Alcais |
The French New Wave is pretty much agreed upon as being the child of five French directors: François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, and Claude Chabrol. Started as film criticism, it took a new edge with more importance on the art of filmmaking and not the sheer entertainment value. These five wrote for a French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma and went on to have their own distinctive film careers as directors and spawning other French New Wavers like Louis Malle and Roman Polanski. They would start a new type of filmmaking that had disciples in Italy (Michaelangelo Antonioni), England (Michael Powell), and America (William Friedkin). Truffaut and Godard have always been the more renowned, but the other three still deserve credit. Rivette made La Belle Noiseuse, Chabrol can be noted for Les Biches, and the mark of Rohmer’s career has been Claire’s Knee. The biggest difference has been that pretty much all of the New Wave is gone: Truffaut, Malle, and Powell have passed and the rest are all in a state of retirement. All except Rohmer. Like any critic turned director, he still searches to finish everything as he wants it. After directing three parts of a series of films of the seasons he finishes up the series, and probably his career, with Autumn Tale.
The film is the normal mistaken love story that has plagued the movement a little too often. Magali (Romand) is a vineyard owner whose children have grown and moved away. She is under the belief that the life she is presently living is the right one for her, but that belief is not shared by some of her friends that are sure she is desperately lonely. Rosine (Portal) wants to Magali to turn out with a older man she once had a fling with. Still friends with this man, she believes that he is the perfect match for Magali. Meanwhile, Isabelle (Rivière) takes out a personal ad for Magali and leaves the man who answers under the impression that she is the woman he is courting. As Rohmer would have it, all is brought out in the wedding party for a family friend and Magali is thrown two different beaus, and must expectedly choose one.
I found that Rohmer has well directed the film and cast it with suitable actors, especially the deliciously fun Rivière. My only real problem with the film is that it is unbelievably predictable. Sure I’ve like some cliché films, but this one sticks to every trick in the book. A well made cliché, but one all the same.
