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Created Jan 24, 2013 01:21AM PST • Edited May 09, 2021 12:47AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Dangerously seductive, visually intoxicating, intellectually playful, Pauline at the Beach is très français. Bien sûr, very, very French. Éric Rohmer was past 60 when he made it, but his cinematic vision of an older man seducing a hot Parisian blonde proved he hadn’t lost touch with his inner poodle.

   Or his ability to make a superb film.

   Romer’s film opens and closes on the driveway gate of a beach house along France’s northern coast. Pauline – of the title – is arriving for summer vacation with her randy older cousin, who has far and away the best butt on the beach. The newly divorced cousin’s name is Marion – aka Marion at the Beach. Arielle Dombasle played/was Marion before going on to marry a succession of high status Parisian men. Her perfect feminine form not being restricted to film, she carried it with her in life. Real men responded.

   Starlet debut extraordinaire aside, Pauline at the Beach is a quintessential French movie, about love and betrayal, sex and desire. Mostly it’s obsessed with love. Bien sûr Français, remember.

   It’s also got the cutest flirting ever, between two teens at the beach – Pauline and her first boyfriend.

   A treasure of a movie, Éric Rohmer’s Pauline at the Beach fulfills a French love of amour + cinéma.

   Beware that the voluminous discussions of love lead to fast moving subtitles. May have to watch it twice.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   From her high-waist down, Arielle Dombasle represents feminine form extraordinaire – the greatest ass ever, atop glorious stems. (Apologies for my French) Then there’s her huge blonde mane. She can also act, even if it’s mostly musing about love and passion. Hard to believe, right. When her top gets stripped off right before Mont Saint-Michel, it seems like some sort of French symbolism about the wonders of France.

   Féodor Atkine plays the globetrotting humanist she falls for, a self-described rolling stone of the gathering no moss variety. Atkine’s got 195 acting credits on IMDb, so he’s got it under control.

   Pascal Greggory plays Pierre, her younger, prettier and less dangerous suitor. Wonder why he didn’t win?

   Amanda Langlet plays young Pauline, just 16 when the movie titled on her character premiered. She went on to make another dozen, so apparently wasn’t scarred too badly.

   Simon de La Brosse plays her boyfriend, who gets totally set-up by Atkine when the older man nearly gets caught fucking Louisette the Candy Girl. Louisette is played by Rosette, who continues as a star to this day, her IMDb Actress credits now totaling 69. Imagine that.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

   Arielle Dombasle perfect, Amanda Langlet great

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Opens on the gate, which then opens. Closes on the gate being closed, as Marion and Pauline vow to each other to believe they weren’t cheated on and then drive away. Authorial filmmaking from start to finish.

    Plus, Romer gives us deception four levels deep – older man to Marion to younger man to Pauline to her teen boyfriend, who’s innocent but was framed by the older man for supposedly fucking the Candy Girl.

11. Direction Perfect 5.0

    The gate scenes bookend a perfectly directed French film.

12. Play Great 4.0

    “If I suffer, he’ll suffer too.” – Marion’s truest expression of love.

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.2

    Delightfully Risqué

17. Sex Erotic 2.7

18. Violence Gentle 1.3

19. Rudeness Profane 2.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    French leisure class at play.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0