Eric Rohmer: Tales of the Four Seasons

Released: 9th October 2006. A box set of French director Eric Rohmer's four films inspired by the seasons. 'A Tale of Springtime' (1989) is the story of a friendship between a high school philosophy teacher and a music student. Caught between apartments, philosophy teacher Jeanne (Anne Teyssedre) attends a party, where a young girl, Natasha (Florence Darel), invites her to stay at the flat she shares with her father, Igor (Hugues Quester). Presently Jeanne finds herself witness to, then participating in, recriminatory scenes between daughter, father and his youthful lover, Eve (Eloise Bennett): jealous Natasha detests Eve, accusing her of theft, while Igor seems more than willing to be left with Jeanne. Rohmer examines the hidden motives and analyses the consequences of their actions, finding nobody wholly innocent. In 'A Winter's Tale' (1992), Parisian hairdresser Felicie (Charlotte Very) has a wonderful holiday romance with a man called Charles (Frédéric Van Den Driessche) in Brittany. She discovers she is pregnant but, through a mix-up over addresses, she loses contact with her lover. As her daughter grows up she finds it impossible to settle with another man, although she wavers between two suitors, and daydreams of Charles finding them again. In 'A Summer's Tale' (1996), Gaspard (Melvil Poupard), a bored young man on holiday in Brittany, is invited to a party by Margot (Amanda Langlet) while he is waiting for his classmate Lena (Aurelia Nolin), with whom he believes he is in love. At Margot's party Gaspard meets another girl, Solène (Gwenaelle Simon), who is also attracted to him. When Lena arrives too, Gaspard is forced to choose between the three girls. In the fourth and final instalment, 'An Autumn Tale' (1998), happily-married Rhone Valley wine-grower Isabelle (Marie Rivière) wants to see her widowed friend Magali (Béatrice Romand) matched up. To this end, she secretly places a lonely hearts ad in a paper on Magali's behalf and chooses a man for her. Misunderstandings ensue, however, when Magali sees Isabelle acting suspiciously with a mystery guest at her daughter's wedding. The film won the Silver Lion for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival.