A Tale of Springtime

Eric Rohmer begins another series of films — dubbed "Tales of the Four Seasons" — with his latest effort, "A Tale of Springtime." And it's typical Rohmer, which means fans will enjoy it and all others will want to stay away.

What makes Rohmer's work unique is that none of his films deals with anything more dramatic than day-to-day life, the minor events that occupy the time of average people.

In other words, don't look for high comedy or low tragedy or tension or suspense . . . . Slice-of-life, conversational relationships in character-driven, low-key, everyday situations are what you'll find here.

For those of us who like his easygoing style, however, Rohmer's films are small joys — and "A Tale of Springtime" is nothing less. (Rohmer's most popular films include "Pauline at the Beach," "The Aviator's Wife," "Claire's Knee," "My Night at Maud's," "Chloe in the Afternoon" and "Full Moon in Paris.")

In "A Tale of Springtime," the central character is a high school philosophy teacher named Jeanne (Anne Teyssedre), who has lent her apartment to a cousin. Jeanne plans to stay at her boyfriend's place, but it's too messy for her organized sensibilities.

So, when she meets young Natacha (Florence Darel) at a party that neither of them is enjoying, they hit it off and Natacha offers to put her up for the night. Jeanne tentatively accepts the invitation.

The next day, however, Jeanne's cousin hasn't moved out — and asks if she can occupy the apartment another week. Jeanne returns to Natacha's place and they spend the next few days together.

After a time, it becomes apparent that Natacha hopes to do a bit of matchmaking between her father (Hugues Quester) and Jeanne. It seems that Natacha's divorced father has a girlfriend she intensely dislikes.

Through dialogue (Rohmer's movies always require a lot of subtitle-reading for those among us who do not speak French) the film explores Natacha's feelings about her parents and why she resents her father's girlfriend so much, as well as Jeanne's feelings about her boyfriend and her mild attraction to Natacha's father.

But there are no big explosions, no angst-ridden depressions and no huge laughs, though there is some comedy. Rather, Rohmer keeps his usual low profile, allowing the characters to naturally develop and gradually discover small truths about themselves.

While it's true that his characters sometimes over-explain their motivations, on the whole "A Tale of Springtime" is up to Rohmer's usual standard. Fans will be pleased.

It is rated PG but has nothing offensive.