A TALE OF SPRINGTIME Movie Review

First up in the recent “Tales of the Four Seasons” cycle by France's Eric Rohmer is the story of Natasha (Florence Darel), a romantically minded, meddling young high-school student who hopes her father (Hugues Quester) will dump the woman he's been dating in order to take up with Natasha's smart and charming philosophy teacher (Anne Teyssedre). From plot elements that sound like a typical episode of Bachelor Father (I guess that dates me), Rohmer has built a suspenseful, wise, and witty entertainment that's every bit as welcome as the season it's named after. This is a simple but tart story of that well-worn point in the heart where the hopes of youth and the memories of middle-age converge, and it's blended with Rohmer's typical good humor and generosity. Rohmer's previous film cycles included his “Comedies and Proverbs” and “Six Moral Tales.”

NEXT STOP … A Tale of Winter, A Summer's Tale, Summer

1992 (PG) 107m/C FR Anne Teyssedre, Hugues Quester, Florence Darel, Eloise Bennett, Sophie Robin; D: Eric Rohmer; W: Eric Rohmer. VHS, Closed Caption ORI