A Winter's Tale

Eric Rohmer, France, 1992, 114 minutes

Preceded in 1990 by A Tale Of Springtime, A Winter's Tale continues Rohmer's interest in young love as hairdresser Felice reluctantly parts with Charles after a holiday romance and foolishly manages to supply him with an incorrect home address.

This is extremely unfortunate for both parties; four years later it's Christmas and Felice still hopes that he will contact her, not only because she is still desperately in love with him, but also because he is the father of her beloved daughter. However, Felice finds herself the target of two would-be husbands; her boss Maxence and a librarian Loic, but she is not really interested in either man.

As with The Green Ray, the female centre of attention is often frustratingly indecisive as she pursues a relatively unreasonable ideal. Nevertheless, Rohmer's fantastic ability to sensitively and insightfully chart the progress of an individual through the delicate world of human relationships is once again in full effect. Felice's character is constructed through a means of story-telling which subtly communicates a psychological depth in her behaviour without seeking to fully explain it. Like Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, Eric Rohmer seems to favour female protagonists as instruments of twentieth century experience.

Somehow resembling a contemporary fairy-tale, A Winter's Tale characterises all that is great about Rohmers best work. It has an enormously affecting ending as well.

Review by Iain Harral
Taken from EUFS Programme 1995-96