Cheap Pauline At The Beach (DVD) (Eric Rohmer) Price

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Customer Reviews of Pauline At The Beach

I also reccomend this movie because it stands up to repeated veiwings. With each additional viewing, more can be discovered about the characters.

A flirtatious philosophy discussion of love...
Pauline at the Beach is exactly what the title suggests as it depicts the end of the 15-year-old Pauline's summer vacation. Pauline spends her time with her older cousin Marion, a stunningly attractive woman, who is in the middle of a divorce. Marion is getting away form her husband by staying at Pauline's parents summer home as she is candidly displaying her body and seeking attention from men. Pauline is a curious teenager that seeks love and what it all means as she innocently discovers the different shades of love at the French-Atlantic coast.

Eric Rohmer wrote and created a flirtatious drama in Pauline at the Beach, which in all essence is a philosophical discussion of love. The discussion is apparent as the dialogues in the story generate the driving fundamental theme, love, which is submerged in all conversations in the film. Under Rohmer's direction the cinematic debate becomes an enlightening experience as it displays several different angles of how love is either reciprocal or one-sided. Through these insights of experience of love Pauline at the Beach offers a delightful and intriguing cinematic experience.

"I stayed true to my desire."
Fifteen-year-old Pauline (Amanda Langlet) is on holiday on the Normandy coast with her gorgeous, older, soon-to-be divorced cousin, Marion (Arielle Dombasle). On the first day of their holiday, they run into Pierre (Pascal Greggory), an old flame of Marion's. Just as Pierre digests the fact that the delectable Marion is once again up-for-grabs, an acquaintance, Henri (Feodor Atkine), who owns a house on the beach, scoops Marion up, and indulges in a relationship with her. Marion is so vain and shallow, she can't for a moment contemplate the awful truth--Henri is just having a fling. Henri is a world-weary roue who takes opportunities as he finds them. Pierre sees this, but his objections to Marion's relationship are considered self-interested, and Marion's vanity won't allow her to see beyond the delicious idea that two men are madly in love with her. Pauline also begins a summer romance with a young boy she meets on the beach. While Marion believes in wild, passionate love-at-first sight, Pauline's more serious and principled nature dictates that she must know a person before treading into a relationship. The foibles of the older characters, Henri, Pierre and Marion, are played in contrast to Pauline's steady, rock-solid common sense. Pauline learns some lessons in love--but as an observer, and ultimately Pauline's newfound knowledge and experience must take a backseat to Marion's determined and one-sided perceptions of the world.

Fans of Rohmer films should delight in "Pauline at the Beach", for the film is yet another fascinating tale. The film offers plenty of insightful dialogue as the story dissects the characters of those involved in the drama. When it comes to dialogue, I don't think there's a director who can match Rohmer for realism. There's one scene, in particular, when the characters exchange their philosophical theories about love--on another level, Marion, Henri, and Pierre are subtly marking out the territorial zones between each other. All of the acting is quite superb. "Pauline at the Beach" is one of the films in Eric Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs series. It's not necessary to watch the other films in the series in order to understand and appreciate this film--displacedhuman