Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Btexxamar I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

noralee One spends a lovely two hours in the French wine country with Eric Rohmer's "Autumn Tale (Conte d'automne)," though this is probably a niche movie for women over 35 - a guy in the back snored through it.This is a delightfully fun movie of character actors with interesting faces having mature conversations about relationships. I've been a Rohmer fan since at least "Claire's Knee" and at age 79 Rohmer uses his camera much more fluidly, though the conversations are no longer like "My Dinner with Andre."All these full-bodied characters have lives and things to do and can't just sit around sipping wine, though they do that too. We are first introduced to the middle-aged characters through their grown kids' disdainful opinions. We get a nice range of relationships, old and young, for comparisons.The climax of the movie is two introductory conversations between two couples and we actually hold our breaths at the outcomes, with one strained by the guy's roving eye and the other a natural coming together of mutual interests.(originally written 7/25/1999)

Harry T. Yung One of the original French New Wave directors, Eric Rohmer completed the last and most cheerful of his "Four Season" series "Autumn Tale" when he was 79 years young (at 84 he made "Triple Agent" and showed no sign of tiring).One most interesting thing about "Autumn Tale" is that two professional critic said what appear to be opposite things about the place of plots in Rohmer's films, but actually meant the same thing. One said, "Plot is typically one of the least important elements of a Rohmer movie", while the other " His films are heavily, craftily plotted, and yet wear their plots so easily that we feel we're watching everyday life as it unfolds." "Autumn Tale" plays almost like a stage play, with two multi-scene acts. The first act sets up the stage and develops the characters. The second act is a wedding party where two matchmaking efforts collide. The object is a widowed vineyard owner who tries to convince herself that she is happily occupied with her work. Scheme number one comes from a good friend (who is happily married and has a daughter who is getting married) who put up a "lonely heart" ad for her, interviews the applicant and tries to bring the two together at the wedding party. Scheme number two comes, brilliantly and unexpectedly, from her son's lovely girlfriend who is very fond of her. The candidate here is the young lady's ex, a professor who can "talk philosophy". This is a ridiculous idea in the son's view, "You're trying to make your ex my stepfather".So much for the plot, which is described above in its bear minimum, without its various hints of subtleties. The beauty of the movie is really in the acting. Never over-directed, it allows the absolutely top-notch cast to take the audience into a happy two-hour party. At the end, you don't feel like having watched a movie with phoney characters, but rather like having spent an evening with some good friends, who are real people. We are charmed and delighted, as well as gently probed into thinking more about relationships between people, particularly how they click. In a way, it's quite similar to "Sideways" but comes even more naturally. Like "Sideways", it has an open ending which is the nearest you can come to a happy ending.

taylor9885 Pauline Kael once made the comment that she heard a man say, enthousiastically, "It's so French!" when coming out of a so-so film, and hated the mixture of complacency and cultural one-upmanship contained in the remark. Rohmer appeals to snobs, mainly: people who disdain American films because they are made with big budgets and bankable stars, and the story had better move forward.This is Beatrice Romand's sixth film with Rohmer, Marie Riviere's seventh. By now the octogenarian director has gotten so stuck in the groove with these actresses he can direct in his sleep (I never felt that way with Bergman and Bibi Andersson, or Liv Ullmann). Push the Romand button, you get pouty obstinacy, arms crossed defiantly. Riviere gives you smiling indulgence, matronly charm--she's a sort of June Allyson. This is a really tiresome picture lacking story, characterization, social comment, any of the things I look for in French cinema. Rohmer is like one of those old singers who should have retired years ago, but the fans keep going to the shows because they're afraid to admit they're aging too. Avoid.

Red-125 Autumn Tale is an interesting, beautiful film. It is far more subtle than an American romance about middle-age love would be. Rohmer's basic premise is that men and women in their 40's or 50's can be interesting, beautfiul, and attractive to other men and women. (Of course, this is obvious, but in Autumn Tale this premise is taken for granted. In a U.S. film the director would have to explain a similar premise.)If I have a criticism of Autumn Tale, it is that all the women--leads, supporting actors, walk-ons, are gloriously beautiful. Surely there are some women (and men) in France who are less than physically perfect. Rohmer has left them out of his film. However, it is hard to complain about the tradeoff of beauty for realism. The actors look great, the countryside of Provence looks great, even the grapes look great!