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.
