User Reviews

Adults have more experience, but that doesn't mean that they are wiser. Au contraire!

Here we have the story of old-enough-to-know-better Marion (Arielle Dombasle) and her teenage cousin Pauline (Amanda Langlet), who are spending a couple idyllic weeks in a charming old house near the beaches of Normandy. Marion, though married, says she's still looking for the love of her life -- "I am not giving up. One day, the sparks will fly." Pauline professes to be more patient with her choice of a lover: "I wouldn't get carried away without knowing him."

Lo and behold, Marion falls into bed with local playboy Henri (Feodor Atkine), realizing from the start that she likes him more than he likes her, setting up a familiar rigamarole for herself in which she pines for a guy she can't have. Pauline, despite her lofty aspirations, also lets herself get quickly seduced, by unsophisticated beach boy Sylvain (Simon de la Brosse).

Against a gorgeous backdrop of abundant summertime vegetation and glittering seascapes, we observe each woman getting disappointed by the opposite sex. On the sidelines we view the unhappy character of Pierre (Pascal Greggory), who serves as a sort of Greek chorus and voice of reason, perpetually seeking logic in affairs of the heart and asking why women don't choose love partners who will treat them right.

By the end of the film, Henri has revealed his true colors, but don't assume he's a dummy. He offers Pauline some advice that bears listening to -- by women of every age. Allow yourself to be desired, he urges -- or you will never be happy. Hmmm. Now that's worth thinking about!

Finding my first viewings (also reviewed) of works from auteur Eric Rohmer, (a guy so hip that he never learnt how to drive,or ever hire a taxi,due to being a total hipster!) to be one that was better than expected,and one that was worse than expected,I decided to break the tie with a third movie.

View on the film:

Walking onto the beach,writer/director Éric Rohmer and cinematographer Néstor Almendros soak up the rays,with the burning white sun being joined by fresh,breezy blues and greens. Taking a slightly less restrained side,Rohmer catches the naked women in a delicate manner gripped by the youthful passion being painted on the screen.

After fully embracing the bourgeoisie life in the first two offerings from this loose series,the screenplay by Rohmer distinctively shows some seeds of doubt over the lifestyle,with the untidy strings left between Marion and Pierre allowing Rohmer to wonderfully pull friction between the lines. Swimming in love for the first time,Rohmer gives Pauline's newly discovered liaisons a refreshingly youthful exuberance,as Rohmer sees Pauline at the beach.

Out of the 50 films he has made this is only the third title of Rohmer that I've seen. I recently decided that with several titles available on DVD I should try to catch up on his back catalogue. It didn't bode well that I fell asleep halfway through this one and had to play it again. It seems fairly obvious - and is confirmed to some extent by the comments one reads about him - that Rohmer is a filmmaker who has a definite world of his own which attracts a polarity of opinion. There seems little room for polite indifference here it's either as outstanding as Orson Welles or as pathetic as Baz Luhrmann. With a long way to go, certainly in my case, I would argue that a middle ground IS possible; a second viewing did hold my attention and I was unable to fault his observation. On the other hand I find that this kind of 'gentle', unobtrusive film-making works better, for me at least, in movies like Le Chignon d'Olga and Le Grande Chemin. Having said that I will certainly make it a point to catch more Rohmer in the future.

Pauline is 15 and she is spending her summer vacation in Granville with her older, sexually precocious cousin Marion. All Pauline has on her mind is spending time at the beach and if there are boys there, so much the better. To Pauline, they're nice but not indispensable, at least until she meets Sylvain ... and even then. Marion, on the other hand, likes to flirt, first with her ex-boyfriend Pierre and then with Henri, an older ethnologist who is something of a womanizer. The film, of course, is Eric Rohmer's PAULINE A LA PLAGE, one of his Comedies and Proverbs, and since we are in Rohmer-land there is a lot of talk, all of it interesting, all of it intelligent and a lot of sexual to-ing and fro-ing and many complications before matters resolve themselves and it ends just as it begins. Indeed this is one of the few Rohmer pictures in which people actually go to bed together rather than just talk about it. And, of course, it's funny in the way that great comedies should be funny, the gentle humour stemming from the characters and the situations they find themselves in. Indeed this, like so many other Rohmer pictures, is just about perfect and it's perfectly played by another of Rohmer's splendid ensembles, (Arielle Dombasle as Marion is another of Rohmer's great addle-headed heroines). A masterpiece.

Eric Rohmer (the director of Pauline at the beach) is perhaps most well-known for his film-cycles. He would take one main theme and approach it in a cyclic (some might even say repetitive) way through multiple movies. In his life he made 3 cycles: The 6 Moral Tales (in the 60's and 70's), The Comedies and Proverbs (in the 80's) and The Tales of Four Seasons (in the 90's).

Pauline at the Beach is part of the Comedies and Proverbs cycle (it's the third installment). As the title suggests the reoccurring motifs in the comedies and proverbs are a comedic approach and a unique proverb that each film is based on. Pauline at the beach is based on the proverb: "Qui trop parole il se mesfait" (a quote from Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval) which roughly translates to: "Whoever talks too much does himself a bad turn". The proverb is displayed as part of the opening credits.

The plot is very simple: The 15 year old Pauline and her significantly older and just divorced cousin (Marion) go on summer vacation to a house near a beach that belongs to Marion and her brother. During their stay they meet 3 men: Pierre, a former friend of Marion who is (still) in love with her, Henri, a divorced ethnologist who praises freedom and independence, and Sylvain, a boy not much older than Pauline. The movie tracks Pauline's and Marion's vacation and their affairs with the men. The catalyst for all their meetings is the beach and the characters express themselves through elaborative speeches about their love life and how one should love. Often their actions contradict what they say.

Rohmer counters the rather static talking by exhibiting layered backgrounds, beaches, gardens, clubs, streets, thus giving us a rich and detailed panorama; an atmosphere that feels just like holiday. He also focuses on body-language – subtle movements and quick glances give us a better idea of the characters and their relations. Especially Pauline gets her fair share of screen time. When Pauline, Marion, Henri and Pierre meet at Henri's on the first evening they have a lengthy talk about their love lives or rather their ideals concerning those. Pauline says nothing (until she is later asked to) and while all the other characters sit and talk the camera follows her when she walks over to the chimney (and later back again). In fact the movie seems to draw a line between Pauline and the adults – by framing and by the arrangement of dialogue. Pauline says relatively little. She seems to focus more on actions – when Henri kisses her feet to wake her she kicks him in the chest before saying anything.

A central conflict in the film ensues when Henri meets with Louisette (a girl who sells candy at the beach) and sleeps with her when he is already romantically involved with Marion. Marion comes back while both are still in bed and Henri convinces Marion that Louisette was really together with Sylvain (who is also at Henri's house) although he is romantically involved with Pauline. Subsequently the gossiping arises, Marion tells Pierre and Pierre tells Pauline who is as a result disappointed by Sylvain and doesn't want to see him anymore; and although Pauline later learns the truth her affair with Sylvain is over, the talking did all the damage.

A very defining aspect of Pauline at the Beach is if you look at it as a coming of age movie, a movie about the loss of a child's innocence, that Pauline doesn't actually lose her innocence – she never sleeps with Sylvain. However it could yet be described as a loss of innocence. She has now been exposed to the love-games of the adults, in fact without wanting it she has been a part of them. Thus she didn't lose her innocence by herself but her surroundings achieved that.

The movie has a very closed feel to it: it starts with Pauline opening the fences in front of Marion's house and ends with her closing them. It singles out Pauline's vacation and makes it stand as something unique from the rest of her life – thus highlighting the importance of the events that happened but also trivializing them as something that's over, closed and locked away in her memory, and has little connection to the rest of her life.

With Pauline at the Beach Rohmer paints an almost mystic painting of innocence and childish naivety. Through the contrast to the love-games of the adults he is able to single out Pauline who seems like someone stuck in the wrong painting. Amanda Langlet (Pauline) plays this role exhilaratingly well – she seems at the same time young and naïve, yet also wise and knowledgeable.

Pauline at the Beach is a love letter to childhood. It stresses the importance of naivety, openness, shows us the vile entanglement that detaches us from the world around us and from ourselves. Rohmer achieves a fresh and vibrant tone; he treats each character with respect and grants them the room that they need to not become objects, subject of the story but subjects by themselves; he effortlessly emulates the relaxed and laid back atmosphere of a summer holiday – yet over this joyous ambiance loom the dangers that the future will bring – all the entanglements that the world will plant upon you.