A Summer's Tale (1996)

A SUMMER'S TALE  (1996)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Eric Rohmer
    Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet,
    Gwenaëlle Simon, Aurelia Nolin
Ah, to be young and beautiful and in love (or not) in the summer on the seacoast in France. Melvil Poupaud plays the moody protagonist, a math major and would-be songwriter named Gaspard, just out of the university, with a few weeks to kill before he starts his first job. He's got a place to stay - a friend's conveniently vacant apartment - and he's waiting for a girl named Lena to show up. Lena's his girlfriend, or maybe not, he's not sure, but he's hopeful, and she's off in Spain with some friends and she's taking her time getting up to Brittany, and in the meantime, Gaspard strikes up a friendship with a waitress named Margot, and he and Margot take long walks together and flirt a little and exchange confidences and kind of hit it off. Then he meets Solene, who's lively and outgoing and can sing, and Gaspard takes the song he was writing for Lena and gives it to her. Then Lena turns up and wants to know how that song's coming along, and now he's got three girls on his hands, which is two girls too many, but what's an introspective, indecisive, cynical, moonstruck guy to do? In fact, all three women are playing him, but probably no more than he's playing them, or trying to. In the end, the best he can do is call it a summer and make his escape. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, and at the same time not enough. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. It's a cautionary tale.