Summer (Le rayon vert AKA The Green Ray)
Directed by Erich Rohmer
Written by Marie Riviere and Erich Rohmer
1986/France
Ministere de la Culture et de la Communication/PTT/Les Films du Losange/etc
Repeat viewing/FilmStruck
[box] Delphine: I’m not very operational in life.[/box]
I love Erich Rohmer’s romantic comedies, including this one.
Delphine (Marie Riviere) is a 20-something career girl working in Paris. The film starts a few days before the mass exodus of Parisians on their summer vacations. Delphine had plans to go to Greece with a girlfriend but these fall through at the last minute. Everyone she knows already has plans of their own. Simulateously, Delphine is coming to terms with the fact that her boyfriend has dumped her for once and for all. Delphine rejects all suggestions that she go somewhere on her own.
But after several aborted attempts to find a landing place, Delphine ends up in Biarritz on her own. It is there she hears the story of Jules Verne’s book “The Green Ray”. I will stop here.
Almost all the dialogue in this film is improvised. This was the first of Rohmer’s films I ever saw and I immediately became a convert. I think his understanding of women and young love is spot on. Delphine’s character has a particularly lovely epiphany. Highly recommended.
Where to put this as, if I leave it I’ll forget, so here in a “modern” hop it will have to go. No connection to Summer (1986).
A modernish non Japanese (WHAT!!) movie tip for you.
You MAY not know this one (and may be hard to find??) but this is a stellar semi adaption of a classic novel – Les Misérables (1995)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113828
An extremely well done “change the original” this “change” works in spades. Acting, production values are high. This was a big surprise as it was only the WW2 connection that got me watching in the first place.
Apparently a fail on the initial US showing when made which is why it might have passed you by.
Don’t think “not another Les Mis” it is….. but it also isn’t.
The cast alone makes this one sound very interesting! Thanks for the tip. So nice to hear from you.