With the recent passing of Eric Rohmer I thought it’d be a good opportunity to re-watch Pauline A La Plage, a film I first over 20 years ago as an impressionable teenager.
During the Eighties BBC2 and Channel 4 went through a golden period in showing films that now in this dumbed-down-demography-chasing-era seems unthinkable; they used to broadcast entire seasons of interesting and oddball cinema, something that when it happens now is relegated to BBC4 or Film4. During that period I remember such themes as 50′s B Sci-Fi, Woody Allen, Cult Classics, Banned Films, Hammer Horror, Red Triangle Movies and Bergman. Searching endlessly for an escape from my dull teenage life I watched everything I could whether I knew anything about the film on or not. Pauline A La Plage was a random late night discovery on BBC2.
I have a vivid memory of watching this film unfold on my small portable TV as Marion and her young cousin Pauline spend the last weeks of summer on holiday in Normandy. Recently divorced Marion bumps into an old flame Pierre, who it turns out still hasn’t gotten over his feelings for her even after all the years apart. Marion only thinks of him as a friend, and is much more interested in the sleazy Henri. Pauline falls for a boy she meets on the beach, and from here things go wrong…
The film is essentially quite basic and is essentially a bedroom farce. It may have long pseudo-intellectual conversations and a thoughtful if at times ponderous tone but it can’t escape that its bedroom farce core. What made an impression on me though all those years ago was that these people were completely unlike anyone I knew. They summered by the sea, had deep long conversations about the nature of life and love, and seemed incredibly sophisticated, especially the young Pauline who wise beyond her years is the only sensible character in the whole movie. Throw in a blue watered beach and the film had a glamorous foreigness that no other movie I had seen up to this point had. Pauline A La Plage was the first French film I saw.
So having just re-watched it this week, did it stand up to the test of time? Mostly yes I’d say, but with a slight touch of no. I still enjoyed it, the dialogue still stood out, and Pauline was still the smart attractive kid she was when I first watched it. But the beach seemed smaller and slightly grubbier now, and the adults were too self-absorbed. The glamour had faded.
I did return to Pauline A La Plage one one previous occasion, whilst at uni, about 5 years after I had initially encountered it. I was staying at a friends house, who despite his nickname of Brainrot was a nice chap (his real name was more mundane – John). The film was on TV, and we both to watch it as we’d discussed our favourite films down the pub one night. As the end credits rolled, Brainrot turned to me looking slightly disappointed saying “I remember there being more nudity in it”.
