A Tale of Autumn / Conte d'automne (1998) [The Criterion Collection]

Director: Éric Rohmern
Writer: Éric Rohmer
Stars: Marie Rivière, Béatrice Romand, Alain Libolt

The last entry in the Tales of the Four Seasons tetralogy is a breezy take on the classic American romantic comedies that influenced Eric Rohmer and his French New Wave peers. Set among the golden vineyards of the Rhône Valley, A Tale of Autumn concerns simultaneous schemes to find a new love for the reserved widow and winegrower Magali (Béatrice Romand). Her son’s girlfriend (Alexia Portal) attempts to pair her with a former professor and lover (Didier Sandre), while Magali’s friend Isabelle (Marie Rivière) assumes a false identity in order to lure eligible bachelor Gérald (Alain Libolt). The misunderstandings that follow are pure Rohmer in bringing out the humor in human folly.

Extras:
- New 2K digital restoration, supervised by cinematographer Diane Baratier and Laurent Schérer, director Eric Rohmer's son, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Excerpt of a radio interview with Rohmer conducted by film critic Michel Ciment
- A Farmer in Montfaucon (1968), a short film by Rohmer
- New English subtitle translation



Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons:
The seasons may change, but the follies of the heart are constant in this ineffably lovely quartet of films by Eric Rohmer, one of cinema’s most perceptive chroniclers of the pangs and perils of romance. Set throughout France, Tales of the Four Seasons is a cycle to stand alongside the director’s two earlier acclaimed film series, Six Moral Tales and Comedies and Proverbs. By turns comic and melancholic, breezy and richly philosophical, these bittersweet tales of love, longing, and the inevitable misunderstandings that shape human relationships probe the most complex of emotions with the utmost grace.