Pauline at the Beach [Pauline à la Plage] **** (1983, Amanda Langlet, Arielle Dombasie, Pascal Greggory, Féodore Atkine, Simon de la Brosse) – Classic Movie Review 4493

In the third of French writer-director Eric Rohmer‘s series of films Comedies and Proverbs, Parisians talk up a storm about manners and morals on a Normandy beach in a story about two cousins (Amanda Langlet as 15-year old Pauline and Arielle Dombasie as her older cousin Marion) who come for a fortnight to stay at their family house on the coast.

The cousins are soon involved with three men (Pascal Greggory, Féodore Atkine and Simon de la Brosse). Marion rejects surfer Pierre (Greggory) and falls for hedonist Henri (Atkine), who dumps her and then spoils Pauline’s romance with Sylvain (de la Brosse).

This thoroughly enjoyable 1983 French romantic comedy drama is subtly played to the life and directed with a miniaturist’s great precision by Rohmer in one of his best and most typical works. Rohmer won the Silver Berlin Bear award for Best Director and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 1983.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4493

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