A Tale of Winter (1992)

Review by All Movie Guide
One of Eric Rohmer's most delicious and deeply felt films, A Tale of Winter is a meditation on chance, loss, and memory, in which Felicie (Charlotte Véry) and Charles (Frédéric van den Driessche) share a passionate fling, and then lose track of each other through an accident of fate. Years later, Felicie divides her affection between Maxence (Michael Voletti), who works as a hair dresser, and the more abstractly inclined Loic (Hervé Furic), but her heart is still with Charles and the summer they shared long ago. The film charts the course of Felicie's emotional quandary with Rohmer's customary detachment, and yet, as always, he seems deeply concerned about the fate of his characters, even as he gently mocks their attempts to control their destinies, which he seems to feel are in the hands of the fates. Rohmer's visuals have never been more poignant than in this film, which brings Felicie's predicament into clinical focus, and keeps the audience guessing until the typically unexpected end. One of Rohmer's most assured and complex works, A Tale of Winter may not be to everyone's taste, but it is assuredly the work of a master filmmaker. ~ Wheeler Winston Dixon, All Movie Guide