Main Cast: Charlotte Véry, Frédéric Van Den Driessche, Michel Voletti, Hervé Furic
Release Year: 1992
Country: FR
Run Time: 114 minutes
Plot
A Tale of Winter is the second installment in Eric Rohmer's Tales of the Four Seasons. Félicie (Charlotte Véry) and Charles (Frédéric Van Den Driessche) had a brief affair during a seaside vacation. Then Charles went abroad on business, and Félicie gave him her address so they could stay in touch; however, she made an unexplainable mistake in the address and has lost all trace of her lover. Five years later, she is still single and raising a daughter by Charles. Though she is courted both by her no-nonsense boss, Maxence (Michel Voletti), and her highbrow friend Loic (Hervé Furic), she is still in love with Charles and hopes to meet him again. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
Review
One of Eric Rohmer's most delicious and deeply felt films, A Tale of Winter is a meditation on chance, loss, and memory, in which Felicie (Charlotte Véry) and Charles (Frédéric van den Driessche) share a passionate fling, and then lose track of each other through an accident of fate. Years later, Felicie divides her affection between Maxence (Michael Voletti), who works as a hair dresser, and the more abstractly inclined Loic (Hervé Furic), but her heart is still with Charles and the summer they shared long ago. The film charts the course of Felicie's emotional quandary with Rohmer's customary detachment, and yet, as always, he seems deeply concerned about the fate of his characters, even as he gently mocks their attempts to control their destinies, which he seems to feel are in the hands of the fates. Rohmer's visuals have never been more poignant than in this film, which brings Felicie's predicament into clinical focus, and keeps the audience guessing until the typically unexpected end. One of Rohmer's most assured and complex works, A Tale of Winter may not be to everyone's taste, but it is assuredly the work of a master filmmaker. ~ Wheeler Winston Dixon, All Movie Guide
Conte d'hiver (A Tale of Winter) is a 1992 French film directed by Éric Rohmer, and starring Charlotte Véry, Frédéric van den Driessche and Michael Voletti. It is the second of Rohmer's Contes des quatre saisons (Tales of the Four Seasons), which also includes A Tale of Springtime (1990), A Summer's Tale (1996) and Autumn Tale (1998).
