The Green Ray

The Green Ray, released in North America as Summer, is a 1986 French romantic drama film written and directed by Éric Rohmer. It is the fifth instalment in Rohmer's "Comedies and Proverbs" series. The film was inspired by the novel of the same name by Jules Verne. It was shot in France on 16 mm film and much of the dialogue is improvised. The film won the Golden Lion and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1986 Venice Film Festival. Plot At the start of summer vacation, Delphine has just suffered the breakup of a relationship and her traveling companion has ditched her so that her new boyfriend can accompany her to Greece instead. She is left without plans at a time when Paris is emptying for the summer. Another friend invites Delphine to join a beach party in Cherbourg for the weekend, but she finds that she is the only one amongst the group who is single so she quickly returns to Paris. Her family pressures her to spend the holidays with them in Ireland, but she resists. She travels alone to the Alps, but is put off by hordes of vacationers and turns around. Traveling restlessly, the theme of the movie (characterized by Roger Ebert) becomes clear: Delphine "is incapable of playing the dumb singles games that lead to one-night stands". She meets a new girlfriend, who flirts with two young men and she flees in anger. She recoils from the chat-up lines of the guys she meets in bars and on trains. She simply cannot engage in that kind of mindless double-talk any longer. Beneath her boredom is genuine anger at the roles that single women are sometimes expected to play. While in Biarritz, she eavesdrops on a conversation about Jules Verne's novel (The Green Ray). According to Verne, when one sees a rare green flash at sunset, one's own thoughts and those of others are revealed as if by magic. At the Biarritz railway station she meets a young man who is travelling to Saint-Jean-de-Luz. She goes with him and together they observe (the green flash). Cast Marie Rivière as Delphine Amira Chemakhi as a friend of Delphine's in Paris as Manuella in Paris Béatrice Romand as Béatrice in Paris Rosette as Françoise in Paris Eric Hamm as Édouard in Cherbourg Carita as Léna in Biarritz Marc Vivas as Pierrot in Biarritz Joël Comarlot as Joel in Biarritz as Jacques in Biarritz