A TALE OF WINTER Movie Review

Conte d'Hiver

The second chapter in Eric Rohmer's “Tales of the Four Seasons” cycle tells of the romantic trials of Félicie (Charlotte Véry), a young woman who simply cannot choose between her two smitten lovers and the man she truly longs for (and the father of her child), Charles (Frédéric Van Den Driessche). It seems that five years earlier, when Félicie and Charles parted after the summer holiday that produced their baby, Félicie mistakenly provided Charles with the wrong address. Having fruitlessly searched for him all this time, Félicie refuses to give up; though her current lovers keep her hopping, she refuses to give up hoping. That is, until a moment of revelation during a performance of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale snaps her into a new awareness, which propels her dilemma forward into a very unexpected resolution, and the most graceful surprise ending of any of Rohmer's romantic comedies. Though it's less screened than many of Rohmer's more conventional romances, A Tale of Winter is one of his wittiest, most moving, most effortlessly elegant films.

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

1992 114m/C FR Charlotte Very, Frederic Van Dren Driessche, Michel Voletti, Herve Furic, Ava Loraschi, Jean-Luc Revol, Haydee Caillot, Jean-Claude Biette, Rosette, Marie Riviere; D: Eric Rohmer; W: Eric Rohmer; C: Luc Pages; M: Sebastien Erms.VHS NYF