French filmmaker Eric Rohmer - the uncle figure to the French New Wave - has used the long, hot summer season as a setting for many of his talkative movies including Pauline At The Beach, Claire's Knee and The Green Ray, each of which explores characters at crossroads in their lives where love seems as elusive as the shade. The Green Ray is probably Rohmer's masterpiece in this regard. It tells the story of Delphine (Marie Rivière), who accepts an invitation to a beach party after being dumped by her boyfriend and ditched by her summer traveling companion. Disheartened by being the only single person there, she returns to Paris, then on to the Alps until finally settling in Biarritz where the titular atmospheric phenomenon puts all her earthly problems into sublime context. Gene Hackman's character comments on watching Rohmer's films in Night Moves, saying, "It was kind of like watching paint dry. And it's true that, if lengthy scenes of dialogue with no overtly dramatic moments doesn't sound like your idea of a great movie, you'll gain little pleasure from The Green Ray. If you like films which foreground the elusiveness of the human experience, on the other hand, its charms are endless.
