A French film recommendation for spring

With pretty blossoms all around, what better way to welcome the arrival of spring in France than with a dose of bourgeois intellectual romance from the master of the genre, Eric Rohmer.

Rohmer, a former teacher and film journalist (he edited influential film journal Cahiers du cinéma from 1957 to 1963) was a New Wave director who sustained a long and critically acclaimed career and died 15 years ago aged 89.

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A Tale of Springtime from 1990 is the first in his series Tales of the Four Seasons (Contes des quatre saisons) and tells of bittersweet romantic entanglements. It begins when a teenage piano student, Natacha (Florence Darel) meets philosophy teacher Jeanne (Anne Teyssedre) at a party. They hit it off and become fast friends.

As Jeanne is currently between apartments, Natacha says she can stay at her place, especially as her father is away on business... or is supposed to be. This turns out not to be the case and next morning the father and Jeanne share an awkward initial meeting. 

It seems Natacha was less than truthful about her father’s absence and is acting as a matchmaker for him, because she does not like his current girlfriend. A second ‘coincidental’ meeting at the family’s country home rouses Jeanne’s suspicion. 

Will love bloom, or will the plan backfire?

Stream on Amazon and Apple TV.

Also out: Who Sows the Wind 

New to Netflix, a fragrant summer saga about a young woman who arrives at a Provence flower-growing estate and finds herself accused of killing the patriarch.

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