Customer Reviews

Summer

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The plot: Delphine, a nice enough girl who may or may not have a boyfriend living somewhere in Europe, spends her entire summer vacation alone at a seaside resort, having a bad time.

How can such a horrible premise make for such a wonderful film? Because Eric Rohmer has created a protagonist of such extraordinary depth. We easily put ourselves in Delphine's shoes. When she meets some shallow guy at a party, we want to tell him off. When her party-loving acquaintance picks up the cutest boy on the beach, we wonder why we can't do the same. When she is invited to a cookout where everyone mocks her vegetarian ways, we remember when we were outsiders and root for her to put them in their place.

But mostly, during the magical climax, we are transported to a special moment in our own lives when our dream really did come true.

The French title of Rohmer's masterpiece translates into "The Green Ray". Having seen this film a half dozen times, I can no longer watch the sunset without looking for the Green Ray. If you know what I mean, then you will surely love this film.

Admittedly, the Fox Lorber transfer is lousy. I managed to get a halfway decent picture by tweaking the settings on my TV (turn the sharpness way up!)

I love this movie, so I was excited to get it on DVD. I was dissapointed. First, the image is full-screen, not matted, and it looked like I was watching a made-for-tv movie. Did Rohmer do this on film? I would assume so, but the image quality on this dvd is poor, grainy, and very faded. I would wait till the next DVD release, if there is one. The sound is okay, the subtitles are PERMANENT, so you can't remove them, and the scene access is a joke, there are only six scenes according to FoxLorber. But all in all, I think this ranks slightly above VHS (which is pathetic for a DVD), so if you want a better copy of this movie than your local video store get this!

The subject of this film , on paper, sounds trivial or indulgent: a nervous young woman wanders around France and seemingly makes it as hard as possible for herself to find happiness - she won't play the games most people play to entertain themselves, she won't go sailing, she won't cut flowers or eat meat, she won't consider a guy who only wants to have fun. Some viewers might even find Delphine irritating or spoilt - why doesn't she just compromise with her impossibly high standards and settle for ordinary human happiness? As with other Rohmer films, but here even more subtly and beautifully, there is a deep spiritual theme speaking through the light comedy of the plot. Delphine's obstinacy is also her spiritual strength. In a world without God Delphine's awe in front of nature and her respect for the ideal of love are the next best thing to faith. Notice, for example the wonderful scene where she walks along the shore in Biaritz but doesn't dive in the waves like the others because she has a reverence for nature which they do not. Every detail counts in this film, even though the improvised dialogue and naturalistic camerawork disguise the artistry. The final ten minutes pack an emotional punch as great as anything in cinema. Delphine's faith in sheer existence pays off and Rohmer communicates to us the awe which we should all feel at being alive but which we lose through conventional ways of living.

French director Eric Rohmer's SUMMER is one of the last comedies and proverbs this master has produced in the eighties. And it's one of his best movies. Anyway, how not to be amazed by the global quality of his production during more than 40 years ? With Eric Rohmer, you can really say that this director is leaving an artistic work to the posterity like Dickens or Picasso.

SUMMER is a comedy ; not a comedy in the Disneyish sense of the word but rather a comedy reminding the pieces of the romantic French theatre of the XIXth century. One doesn't laugh during the vision of SUMMER, one smiles.

Delphine, played by the Rohmerian Marie Rivière, is desperate. Two weeks before her summer holiday, her best friend, Catherine, has found a new boy-friend and plans to spend the summer in his arms rather than in the company of Delphine, even if it means adios to a trip into the greek islands. What to do in Paris, alone, in august ? For a girl like Delphine, a secretary dreaming all year long of her next holiday, it's a drama. So we follow, day after day, her quest for happiness. At this point, the comedy becomes tragedy as we find out that Delphine is the archetype of the solitary ; refusing the occasions to make new acquaintances, developing her differences to the extreme. You have to watch this scene involving a vegetarian Delphine trying to explain to her guests, average French steak-eaters, why it is not fair to eat meat !

Marie Rivière is outstanding in the role of Delphine and would have deserved an international award for her interpretation. The DVD in itself is deceiving as always with WinStar (ex-Fox Lorber). Grainy images with few contrasts.

A DVD for your library.

This is the charming story of how a young woman, overcome by self pity and negativity overcomes her ruined vacation plans by being captured by the story of the last ray of the sun, the green ray, and how her belief in that allows her to follow through on her attraction for a young man after a very sour series of experiences.

Delphine (Marie Rivière) is a young woman that doesn't exactly know what she wants in life, and that is unable to relate well to others. In her own words, "I'm not very operational in life".

That characteristic is specially easy to see when, due to unforeseen circumstances, she goes on holidays alone. She visits many places, but there is always a problem: her. Delphine feels she needs someone to be complete, and gets depressed because she doesn't seem to attract the opposite sex. On the other hand, when young men get near her she rejects them, as they are not what she is looking for. Will that change? And what does the green ray has to do with Delphine's quest for love?

All in all, I can say that I liked this film, and that I simply loved the ending. "Summer" (or "Le rayon vert", the original French title) is the fifth film in Eric Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" series, and the first film directed by him that I saw. Truth to be told it was more than good enough to make me want to watch his other films. Of course, recommended.

Belen Alcat

PS: I give this film 3.5 stars out of five. If you like it, try to watch another of Rohmer's films, "Tale of winter" ("Comte d'hiver"), my favourite Rohmer film so far.

This film is one of those rare finds. It is a simple story of a single woman in Paris. It is summer and time for everyone in Paris to go on their 6 week vacation. Our heroine is an introvert
and does not seem to fit in anywhere, nor with anyone. The film portrays her loneliness, even amongst her vacation comrades, and the sunshine of the countryside and seaside. The film is in fact almost an expose' on loneliness. At the end, a charming piece of magic, in the form of a green ray seen at sunset, peeks in and saves the day. This is a beautiful slice of life film, not to be missed by anyone who appreciates quietness and simplicity in a film.

Anyone who thinks De Sica ("The Bicycle Thief") and Fellini ("La Strada," "8 1/2") have a corner on the neo-realist market obviously has not seen Eric Rohmer's brilliant and perceptive film, "Summer," starring the very talented Marie Riviere. Even though Rohmer does not believe in hand-held cameras, I enjoyed how he filmed common people on the streets of Paris, in the backyard of a French country home, at a beach in Biarritz, etc. In one scene he has a guy following Rivere in a Parisian park; in another scene he has Rivere bump into an old friend at a sidewalk cafe in Paris; in yet another scene he has Riviere meet a topless Swedish girl at a Biarritz beach. These may sound like ordinary scenes but they were very well drawn. What I liked about this film was how perceptive it was on the human condition. The Rivere character is very particular of people yet she doesn't like being alone. Friends try to help her but have a difficult time understanding who she is and how she interracts with other people. She is the type of person who does not like to be in the center of attention and would prefer to sit in the back of a train station than in the front where everyone can see her--including guys who might hit on her. You can tell she feels very uncomfortable with guys who she does not know unlike her friends who hit on guys as if it's second nature for them. Another thing I liked about this film is just how natural everything seemed--the actors seemed natural, the dialogue seemed natural, the pacing of the film seemed natural, and especially the ending seemed natural. The "naturalness" of this film is what makes it a superior film in its own right amongst the greatest Italian Neo-realist filmmakers.

This film is one of the best chapters in a delightful series of films by Eric Rohmer wherein he explores the puzzle of human relationships. Our young anti-heroine here is a young Parisian, Delphine, who finds herself without a companion for the upcoming August vacation sabbatical, which those blessed French enjoy. Her friends try to help on the surface and toss around some shallow advice.

Delphine tries several trips away from Paris, however finds herself back in the empty streets of Paris, unable to cope with the loneliness of not fitting in with the summer crowd. Her attempts to communicate even her simplest feelings, e.g. her vegetarianism, or her reluctance to let the typical resort guys hit on her, fall flat, without any one understanding.

Rohmer's film is truly an expose' on the human condition of loneliness. Delphine's alienation is accentuated against the back drop of the sun dappled French seaside,full of colors, children, and lovers, where everything is so uncomplicated and connected, and everyone is seemingly so happy.

As the film is closing, our heroine finds her hope when the special rays of the setting sun, poke through to save the day. As in life, the unexpected pops up. This is a truly remarkable film to be treasured by anyone who values dialogue over action, who is intrigued by the search of our soul for understanding and connection.

Éric Rohmer (1920) first challenged traditional Hollywood cinema with his French New Wave cycle of films, Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales - Criterion Collection, which he completed in 1972 before commencing another six-film cycle, "Comedies and Proverbs," each based on a different proverb.

Inspired by Jules Verne's 1882 novel, The Green Ray, and based on the proverb, "Ah, for the days/that set our hearts ablaze," Summer (Le Rayon vert) (1986) is the fifth in Rohmer's insightful "Comedies & Proverbs" film series. In Verne's novel, characters stare at the horizon in Scotland, attempting to observe the sun's green ray at sunset (a rare optical phenomenon), only to find love in each other's eyes instead. In Rohmer's film, after moping around Paris, gloomy Delphine (Marie Rivière) unexpectedly finds true love on her solo summer vacation. Although she is reluctant to travel alone, the Parisian secretary travels to Cherbourg, to the Alps, and to the beach, reading Dostoyevski's The Idiot along the way, and always on the verge of self-pitying tears. Wanting to remain "pure," when it comes to relationships with men, Delphine sets high standards for herself, and is unwilling to settle for anything less. At the Biarritz train station she meets a young man who is traveling to Saint-Jean-de-Luz. She impulsively goes there with him (in a scene reminiscent of Before Sunset) and together they fall in love in front of the warm glow of sunset while watching for le rayon vert (the green ray). (This film will appeal to solo travelers and to those who haven't given up on true love, alike.)

Summer is Rohmer at his best. Smart, sensitive, and engaging, this nearly perfect seaside-romantic-comedy is among my favorite Rohmer films, and a good starting point for anyone new to the genius of Rohmer. Rich in relationship dialogue, like many of Rohmer's films, Summer demonstrates how the course of love never did run smooth. Hopefully Criterion will remaster Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" series, and then offer it as a boxed collection similar its "Six Moral Tales" boxed set.

G. Merritt