Pauline at the Beach

Classic French bedroom farce updated with the Eric Rohmer touch, this is solid entry in his “Comedies and Proverbs” series, as always precisely balanced between intellect and libido. Pauline is an absolutely lovely 15-year-old, and the beach is Normandy at the end of summer. Her older cousin is a tawny blonde babe, over whom two men joust, and Pauline drinks in their adult erotic banter, and meets a boyfriend of her own on the beach. Complications ensue, but it is all quite simple in the end. In the unmatchable words of John Barth in The End of the Road: “Who would not delight in telling some extragalactic tourist, ‘On our planet, sir, males and females copulate. Moreover, they enjoy copulating. But for various reasons they cannot do this whenever, wherever, and with whomever they choose. Hence all this running around that you observe. Hence the world.’” (1982, dvd, r.) *7*