Good Things Come to Those Who Wait for 'A Tale of Springtime'

The films of Eric Rohmer are an acquired taste. Rohmer, who belonged to the French New Wave of the fifties, and who served as director of the influential magazine Les Cahiers du Cinema for six years, is the filmmaker's filmmaker. He describes his work as "a cinema of thoughts rather than actions," and has stated that he doesn't care for commercial success. His movies are sparse and unadorned, almost parsimonious, and many audiences find them irritating and boring. And yet, despite all of this, many of his films are quite enjoyable. The latest release from Rohmer, "A Tale of Springtime," falls into this category.

The film is exasperating in the beginning. Rohmer leaves his audience disoriented as he follows Jeanne (Anne Teyssedre), a young philosophy teacher, through a seemingly mundane routine. The audience watches her enter an apartment, fold a sweater, unfold the sweater, and then leave the apartment. Nothing of importance appears to happen.

At a party she meets Natacha (Florence Darrell), who invites her to spend the weekend at her house, so her father lgor (Hugues Quester) can meet Jeanne. Natacha's father is involved with Eve (Eloise Bennett), a girl his daughter's age whom Natacha despises. Rohmer trails this quartet of actors for a week and the audience observes them eating, and fighting, telling stories, discussing philosophy, and gradually getting involved in each other's lives.

There exists only the slightest semblance of plot, and the actors do nothing but speak in front of a basically immobile camera, a tech nique Rohmer learned from working in television. However, in spite of this, Rohmer succeeds in drawing the audience in, little by little, just as Jeanne is drawn into Natacha's family problems. The director presents four charismatic and eloquent characters, and by the middle of the film the audience feels as if it were watching an episode from real life.

As is usual with Rohmer's films, the success of "A Tale of Springtime" rests squarely on the actors' shoulders. Teyssedre deliver, the best performance in the movie, evolving from the sober young teacher of the beginning to a mature and self possessed woman. Teyssedre makes Jeanne an intensely likable creation and provides the film with its radiant core. Beautiful and petulant, Darrell gives a splendid performance as Natacha, a confused and complex eighteen year-old wavering between adolescence and adulthood.

"A late of Springtime" is not a conventionally palatable film. There is no easy payoff or pat resolution. Given a chance, however. "A Tale of Springtime" reveals itself as profoundly rewarding.