Autumn Tale

...as you've probably guessed if you've been paying attention for the last couple of days, is the title of the latest film on the program in my ongoing homage to Eric Rohmer.

And boy oh boy, if there was ever a film to see if you want to know why Rohmer engages me personally, this is the one. A talent for dialogue (given that I have to assume that through the translator), an exploration of love and friendship, a taste for writing about women, misunderstandings, a wedding, an ambiguous ending, dancing.

Those of you who know my work: That sound familiar to anybody?

No lesbians, but given the way French women are always kissing each other and holding hands, it doesn't take much to imagine a certain subtext.

In Ebert's essay, the one that started all this by jump-starting my interest in Rohmer's films, he calls Marie Rivière's character in this film "perhaps the most lovable of all [Rohmer's] heroines." It's all a matter of taste, I suppose, but my eyes were more taken with one Alexia Portal...