AUTUMN TALE (1998)

REVIEW

Autumn Tale is an amusing little gem from the French Catholic writer director Eric Rohmer. The plot centers on a romantic mixup involving the personal ads (similar to Brad Anderson’s equally charming Next Stop Wonderland). Rohmer’s heroine is lonely Magali (Beatrice Romand), an attractive but shy 40 ish country vintner and widow who’d never place such an ad on her own. Unwittingly, she’s helped out by Isabelle (elegant Marie Riviere), her long married, sophisticated best friend.

Isabelle enjoys doing the screening and selects the improbably wonderful Gerald (Alain Libolt), then lets him in on the plot. She tries to match them up at her daughter’s wedding reception. But Isabelle is unaware that another friend of Magali’s has arranged a match, same time and place, with her own boyfriend a suave bachelor professor who’s too old for her.

All these people are not only real but also likable, and the comic confusion provides easy entry into the actual anxieties of mid life. The harvest time setting is fresh. And the talk is bright, adult and moral the characters often discuss the truths of life. The surprise ending is gentle and insightful.

Rohmer, now 79, is one of the surviving geniuses of the New Wave of the 1950’s, famous for his Catholic take on the films of Alfred Hitchcock. He’s also made a long string of thoughtful and delightful, suitably honored films (My Night at Maude’s, Claire’s Knee), which often involve romantic dilemmas from the female viewpoint. This is the fourth in his series of seasonal tales, although Summer has not yet been released here. Chatty, low key but wise romantic comedy

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