The Green Ray

NEW 35mm PRINT! ► Summer à la Eric Rohmer is a guarantee of brilliance. Made three years after Pauline at the Beach, and screening in a new 35mm print, The Green Ray — originally released in North America as Summer — epitomizes the wondrous talents of the late, great French director, master of the modern comedy of manners, morals and misunderstanding. Has any other filmmaker mined humanity’s interior life with more wit, irony and intelligence? “The Green Ray is frequently cited as a career triumph in a filmography that includes numerous great films. Rohmer’s tale, the fifth in his ‘Comedies & Proverbs’ cycle (‘Ah for the days/That set our hearts ablaze’ - Rimbaud), follows the independent but insecure Delphine (Marie Rivière), a newly single young Parisian who cannot find a holiday companion for the month of August, and meets and rejects, glides and stumbles in her longing for connection. Overhearing a discussion of Jules Verne’s The Green Ray, Delphine becomes fascinated with seeing the elusive meteorological event — the green ray — and the promise that comes with it. Rohmer stock player Rivière, who also co-wrote her largely self-created role, delivers one of the most captivating lead performances in any of the filmmaker’s works” (The Film Desk). Colour, 35mm, in French with English subtitles. 98 mins.