Pauline at the Beach is a 1983 French film by
Éric Rohmer, the third of his six-part
Comedies & Proverbs Thematic Series. Its original title is
Pauline à la plage. It revolves around the coming of age of 16-year-old Pauline (Amanda Langlet), who is ready to experience her first love. She travels to Normandy with her beautiful older cousin Marion (Arielle Dombasle). Marion gets into a
Love Triangle with her old boyfriend Pierre (Pascal Greggory) and dashing middle-aged adventurer Henri (
Féodor Atkine), while Pauline strikes up a relationship with a teenage boy named Sylvain (Simon de la Brosse).
Tropes:
- Betty and Veronica:
- Pauline (the dark-haired protagonist) and Marion (her older and somewhat daft cousin).
- Also a male version of this, with Pierre (Betty) and Henri (Veronica) battling for Marion's affections.
- Book Ends: The film opens and closes with Pauline and Marion in the car at the gate of their rented house. Pauline even wears the same sailor's uniform top in both scenes.
- Closet Shuffle: While Henri is cavorting with the candy peddler, Sylvain warns him that Marion's back from her trip. Henri has the other woman hide in the bathroom, then shoves Sylvain in there with her and claims that he caught those two together, which messes up Sylvain's relationship with Pauline.
- Consummate Liar: Even when he confesses to his previous lies, Henri still lies to cover himself.
- Dumb Blonde: Marion is immature in comparison to her visibly younger cousin.
- Epigraph: As with all the Comedies & Proverbs, it opens with a proverb, in this case a quote from Chrétien de Troyes—"Qui trop parole, il se mesfait" ("A wagging tongue bites itself").
- Hypocritical Humor: Fretting how Pauline has become involved with Sylvain, Marion says "She shouldn't be picking up idiots on the beach" to Henri, the man Marion picked up on the beach.
- Love Dodecahedron: The six main characters get into a tangled relationship web.
- Ms. Fanservice: Arielle Dombasle looks pretty impressive in a tight one-piece swimsuit, and even gets a couple brief topless scenes.
- Only One Name: For Pauline and everyone else.
- Protagonist Title: Pauline is the protagonist in this movie.
