Le Rayon vert (Summer)

Summer (Le Rayon Vert) is the fifth of French director Eric Rohmer's Comedies et Proverbes movie cycle. Left out of everyone's Summer vacation plans, unhappy Parisian student Marie Riviere (Rohmer's star in all of the Comedies et Proverbes) accepts an invitation to stay at her friend's empty apartment in Biarritz. Swedish tourist Carita tries to snap Riviere out of her bad mood, but the two ladies are polar opposites in terms of relating to the opposite sex. Carita will take it any way she can, while Riviere holds out for true romance. A mystical assignation tied in with the old Jules Verne novel Le Rayon Vert (The Green Ray) brings Riviere in contact with the man of her dreams (Vincent Gauthier). An international award winner, Summer was surprisingly overlooked in France, where director Rohmer was (in the 1980s at least) somewhat taken for granted.