Autumn Tale turns Rohmer’s attention from young love to middle-aged love, as sought for by the prickly Magali (Béatrice Romand), a winemaker and widow. Lonely but unsure of where to even begin such a search, she refuses an offer from best friend Isabelle (Marie Rivière) to place a personal ad. Isabelle, however, ignores this and places the ad anyway, intending to audition respondents and engineer a meeting between Magali and the best candidate. Meanwhile, Isabelle’s daughter Rosine (Alexia Portal) is also intent on playing matchmaker for her mother’s friend. Warm, witty and sensitive, the film is an absolute pleasure.

Best Screenplay Award, Venice Film Festival 1998

This film is screening as part Les Films du Losange 50th Anniversary programme. This programme consists of three parts: Part One is showing in October, Part Two (which includes this screening) concerns the work of Éric Rohmer while Part Three  will run as a strand of 2012 IFI French Film Festival.