Posted: 09/01/1999

Autumn Tale

(1998)

by Michael Koenig

Misunderstandings and harmless lies make for an Autumn Tale.

Conte d’Automne (Autumn Tale), the final film in director Eric Rohmer’s “Tales of the Four Seasons,” takes place in the Rhône Valley of Southern France, a center of winemaking where the quaint loveliness of centuries-old houses and cobblestone streets is also marred by a modern intrusion into the skyline: a nuclear power plant.

The film takes place in the modern world, but could easily have taken place any time within the forty or so years that Rohmer has been making films. Rohmer has never been interested in addressing current events in his films: the subject matter of his films is reflected in the titles of his two previous series: Six Moral Tales and Comedies and Proverbs.

Rohmer, now 79, was the editor of the famous French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema from 1956 to 1963. He was a founding member of the Nouvelle Vague, or French New Wave, along with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Louis Malle and Claude Chabrol. The thing that they had in common wasn’t a common vision of the type of film that they wanted to make, but a desire to make films in which the personal vision of the director was paramount.

Rohmer’s films are famous for their long, digressive conversations. He uses long takes and few camera movements. In one scene in Autumn Tale, a moth flies in front of the camera. While another director might have chosen to do another take, Rohmer is more concerned that the scene be emotionally truthful.

Most of Rohmer’s films are comedies in the classical sense, meaning that although the characters may find themselves in emotionally wrenching situations, not much harm will come to them.

Autumn Tale is about two women in their forties, both of whom are seen as sexually desirable, a rarity in modern American films.

Magali (Béatrice Romand) is a winemaker whose fields are as unruly as her neighbors’ are neat. She is endlessly patient with her wines, more interested in producing an excellent vintage than in making a large profit. She is also a widow who confesses that she would like to be involved with a new man, but is reluctant to go out and try to meet one.

Isabelle (Marie Riviére) is a bookstore owner who has been happily married for 24 years. She and Magali have been friends since childhood. Isabelle decides to place a personal ad for Magali, knowing that Magali never would. Gérald (Alain Libolt) answers the ad, and Isabelle goes to meet him, pretending to be Magali.

Isabelle doesn’t know that someone else is also matchmaking for Magali. Rosine (Alexia Portal) is a young student who is dating Magali’s son Leo. She decides to fix Magali up with Etienne (Didier Sandre), her former philosophy professor and former lover, who has made a habit of becoming romantically involved with his female students. She tells him that while her relationship with Leo is merely temporary, her friendship with Leo’s mother is far more important to her.

Portal plays a character that appears in nearly every Rohmer film, a bright young woman who believes herself to be wise about love. Part of her reason for matchmaking is selfish; she believes that she can only be friends with Etienne if he becomes involved with someone else.

Rohmer’s films use the mechanics of a farce in which a series of coincidences, mistaken identities, and the characters’ own harmless lies lead to misunderstandings. However, the farce structure serves a dramatic purpose, not a comedic one.

Rohmer is primarily interested in capturing seemingly spontaneous conversations within the context of an intricately plotted moral tale. These conversations are often improvised by the actors, a process made easier by the fact that Rohmer has collaborated with both of the film’s lead actors many times before. Riviére has appeared in several Rohmer films, going back to 1980, while Romand has worked with Rohmer for nearly three decades, since 1970’s Claire’s Knee. Both give lively and charming performances here.

In Autumn Tale, all of the characters finally meet at the wedding of Isabelle’s daughter, where each of the misunderstandings are sorted out in the course of a lovely autumn afternoon, while the characters take sips of Magali’s wine.

Michael Koenig is a writer, editor, and a graphic artist. He lives in Oakland, California, and is generally in need of a nap.

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