Best Film, Venice Film Festival, 1986

(Le rayon vert). The astounding performance of Marie Rivière as a lonely woman searching for company-yet unwilling to compromise-grounds this airy, ephemeral Rohmer tale, winner of Best Film at the 1986 Venice Film Festival. It's summertime in France and the proud, outspoken Delphine needs a travel partner, but finds instead loneliness. "She's different from us," a table of yuppies comments. Her travels through France and awkward attempts to meet people frame the story, but Summer is more a feeling than a narrative. Scenes pass without dialogue, as Rohmer surrounds the story and Delphine with the sounds of isolation: the wind, the ocean, footsteps on pavement, murmurs of other people's conversations, overheard just enough to keep hope alive.

Repeated on Sunday, October 30.