A Tale of Springtime

Stars: Anne Teyssedre, Florence Darel. French director Eric Rohmer's latest brings to mind a remark that Gene Hackman's character made in the 1975 Arthur Penn film Night Moves. To wit: "I saw a Rohmer movie once. It was like watching paint dry." Rohmer's latest is the story of a philosophy teacher named Jeanne who meets a young waif named Natasha (Florence Darel) and decides to spend some time at her house. As the two jaw at extraordinary length, we the audience intuit that Natasha despises her father Igor's young girlfriend Eve, and Natasha's main aim in the film is to link her daddy with her newfound friend. Although this plot point is announced with all the subtlety of a five alarm bowl of chili, Jeanne is unaware of this ulterior motive of Natasha's for quite some time. Eventually, Jeanne, Natasha, Igor, and Eve sit down to dinner and talk about--heart be still--Immanuel Kant's a priori synthetic judgment. If that little revelation revs your pulse, than A Tale of Springtime may be just for you. Otherwise, it's a boring, pretentious, predictable exercise in "talking" about love. (Even for a Rohmer film this one is disappointing, and doesn't hold a candle to his 1987 romantic outing Boyfriends & Girlfriends.) Audience: Those who enjoy those French films which are full of sound and escargot, signifying nothing.