Pauline à la Plage

Rohmer, in the third of his 'Comedies and Proverbs', may still be tiptoeing delightfully through the same verbose ground that he's covered for years, but no other director so clearly reveals the distances between words and meaning, thought and action. Here his 15-year-old heroine (Langlet) goes on holiday, and instead of fun finds a perverse, sometimes painful lesson in the emotional games of the adult world: as her older cousin (Dombasle) rejects a boring old flame and lurches into an affair with a sly advocate of freedom in relationships, she witnesses the trio's discussions, double standards, and deceit. Dispensing with heavy plotting as he coolly observes and dissects well-meaning but frequently cruel human interaction, Rohmer yet again proves his ability to merge poignancy and humour by means of delicately nuanced performances and naturalistic but pointed dialogue.