Monday, March 1, 2010

A Tale of Springtime

The first of four films in the Tales of Four Seasons series by French director Eric Rohmer, A Tale of Springtime puts Jeanne and Natacha together by chance and follows their relationship over the course of a few weeks. Jeanne is a young philosophy teacher and Natacha a high school student taking classes at a piano conservatory. Both women are probably more honest with each other as strangers than with those they are close to, but this allows us to develop a deeper relationship quickly. The springtime reference of the title is clearly connected to romance and love and we get to watch the machinations of Natacha as she wheedles her way between her father and current girlfriend and the indifference of Jeanne as she considers her connection to her boyfriend. This is a nice film, but one gets the sense that it works better as part of the whole four-film series. As an isolated film, it is only so-so.
3 stars (out of 5)

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