Eric Rohmer is very well known all around the world; He was one of the directors who formed the French New Wave in the late 50's - early 60's, but after that he found his own path. The path he went through with more determination than anyone. Autumn Tale is the last film of his last series: The Tales of The Four Seasons. Before this series of four he made two series of six films; The Moral Tales and Comedies & Proverbs. Autumn Tale is a very beautiful film cinematographically as it is narratively, from the 78-year-old master.Through his whole career, Eric Rohmer had the ability of making much from little ingredients. His films always had a low-budget, he often used the same cast & crew for his own production company Les Films du Losange. He never worked with mainstream actors/actresses and he used real filming locations with his own scripts.Eric Rohmer always tried to reach to as realistic dialog as possible. He sometimes recorded his actresses' discussions on their free time, to get to know the way, that certain aged people talked in the time. Rohmer usually wrote the dialogs himself, but it many have told that much had been left on the level of improvisation.Autumn Tale is about two women, who have been best friends for decades; Isabelle (Marie Rivière) and Magali (Béatrice Romand). Magali, a widow, has isolated in her countryside house where she works as a wine producer. She has given up hope in finding new love. Her friend Isabelle has been married for 25 years and wants to help Magali. This is the basic plot the film builds around, on misunderstandings and coincidences.Because Rohmer wrote a lot of surveys, articles and books about the state of film, one shouldn't watch his films without paying attention to this. Autumn Tale is about wine harvest, this can easily be reflected to the plot. The characters live in a beautiful countryside town, which landscapes they adore. But all of them are aware and keep an eye on the modernization of it. This reflects to Magali's way of respecting the old ways of wine production.Autumn Tale is a beautiful story of friendship, loneliness, searching and finding the love and joy in one's life. An interesting perspective on this story is to compare it with Rohmer's earlier films. As I mentioned earlier he often used the same actresses and the thing why one can compare these characters with others is because they are very much alike. Marie Riviere (Isabelle) plays similar roles in Eric Rohmer's The Aviator's Wife (1980) and The Green Ray (1986). Then Beatrice Roman (Magali) in Claire's Knee (1970) and Wonderful Marriage (1981). What makes these characters similar is that they all are looking for men. For something new in their lives.Even that Eric Rohmer did some films in the 21st century it's quite interesting to watch Autumn Tale as a reflection of his career. Since it is his last film in the 20th century. Thank you for reading and I hope you'll enjoy Autumn Tale, a beautiful film about harvesting and finding something new.

One of the original French New Wave directors, Eric Rohmer completed the last and most cheerful of his "Four Season" series "Autumn Tale" when he was 79 years young (at 84 he made "Triple Agent" and showed no sign of tiring).One most interesting thing about "Autumn Tale" is that two professional critic said what appear to be opposite things about the place of plots in Rohmer's films, but actually meant the same thing. One said, "Plot is typically one of the least important elements of a Rohmer movie", while the other " His films are heavily, craftily plotted, and yet wear their plots so easily that we feel we're watching everyday life as it unfolds." "Autumn Tale" plays almost like a stage play, with two multi-scene acts. The first act sets up the stage and develops the characters. The second act is a wedding party where two matchmaking efforts collide. The object is a widowed vineyard owner who tries to convince herself that she is happily occupied with her work. Scheme number one comes from a good friend (who is happily married and has a daughter who is getting married) who put up a "lonely heart" ad for her, interviews the applicant and tries to bring the two together at the wedding party. Scheme number two comes, brilliantly and unexpectedly, from her son's lovely girlfriend who is very fond of her. The candidate here is the young lady's ex, a professor who can "talk philosophy". This is a ridiculous idea in the son's view, "You're trying to make your ex my stepfather".So much for the plot, which is described above in its bear minimum, without its various hints of subtleties. The beauty of the movie is really in the acting. Never over-directed, it allows the absolutely top-notch cast to take the audience into a happy two-hour party. At the end, you don't feel like having watched a movie with phoney characters, but rather like having spent an evening with some good friends, who are real people. We are charmed and delighted, as well as gently probed into thinking more about relationships between people, particularly how they click. In a way, it's quite similar to "Sideways" but comes even more naturally. Like "Sideways", it has an open ending which is the nearest you can come to a happy ending.

Where did Mr Rohmer get the money to make such a terrible movie ? A nightmare, from beginning to end, a nightmare of boredom and pretention. All actors speak "fake" (hearing them is unbearable after 3 minutes), the story is stupid (every basic 1pm telenovela has better plot and twist), there is no direction (south of France looks bad for the first time on screen). What's the purpose of all this ? Who wants to spend 2 hours around these uninteresting depressed french semi-intellectuals ? Not me.

If you're not an Eric Rohmer fan, then it just might be too casually French and talkative. It actually reminded me of Rohmer's 1981 "Le Beau Mariage" (A Good Marriage) which also has Beatrice Romand, and Marie Riviere who was in 1986 " Le Rayon vert" (The Green Ray, aka Summer). Here they are paired up, 12 years hence, in 1998 "Conte d'automne" - it's almost like Rohmer waited for them to mature into 40 something to make this film. Rohmer is 79 and what a veteran at telling stories about (mostly young) women of the hearts. This time it is vintage, literally so about Beatrice's character Magali, who owns a vineyard, and her enduring friendship with Marie's character Isabelle, with Rohmer's long-standing subject of relationships, seeking marriage companion, and matters of the heart. Isabelle and Magali both are married now with grown-up children, in fact in the beginning, we see Isabelle, her husband, her daughter and son-in-law to be discussing about wedding invitees. We follow Isabelle, leading us to Magali's vineyard and meeting Magali, and a young woman named Rosine (portrayed by Alexia Portal) who's supposed to be Magali's son's current girlfriend. Yes, Rohmer simply cannot not have his favorite 20 something young woman characters out of the picture - it actually plays an important supporting role in this Autumn Tale.For a change, Isabelle and Magali are the focus of this Rohmer tale, but the subject is still about woman and man relationships, the dance of chance and mischance, the fluttered, confused matters of the heart. Here, Rohmer has added 'spice' to his story, there is actually alluring, intriguing twists and turns of affair, and Marie Riviere as Isabelle is simply wonderful to watch, as she engineered a match for her best friend, Magali. Beatrice Romand's facial expression is reminiscent of her role in "Le Beau Mariage", it's like going back in time to see how Magali might have been when she was younger, before her marriage in "Autumn Tale". Same for Isabelle, when I rerun "The Green Ray", I noticed the disposition that Marie Riviere displayed then is still observed in "Autumn Tale" - it's like tracing her 20 something period and what she's like then. You can say Rohmer's tales have soap opera ingredients in them, but they are always truly French and definitely lots of dialog, full of philosophies of life and relationships, of the pursuit of love and companionship. The men characters are never neglected - they are equally and subtly complex in their supporting roles. Etienne, Rosine's professor, and Gerard, Magali's potential match arranged by Isabelle, are both well portrayed by Didier Sandre and Alain Libolt respectively. They seemed so comfortable in their roles even in uncomfortable situations. Chance and fate are strong elements in Rohmer's tales, and they are in high dosage here. This may not be for everyone (NFE), but surely a delight for Eric Rohmer fans, or whoever likes a dose of French cinema, and perhaps cable viewers of Romance Classics, AMC (American Movie Classics) or BRAVO. Rohmer at 79, vraiment formidable!I do recommend "The Green Ray" if you haven't seen it, and if you find Beatrice Romand's character fascinating, try viewing "Le Beau Mariage".