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| Amanda Langlet as Pauline and Arielle Dombasie as Marion |
Pauline at the Beach is, by a wide margin, the sexiest film in either of Éric Rohmer's two major series. Although there is a sexual subtext to all twelve films, as his protagonists struggle in words and thoughts to manage their love lives, the intellectualism of his characters (and Rohmer's own approach to filmmaking) gives an almost asexual appearance to their romantic shenanigans. Sure, there were momentary blasts of eroticism throughout the moral tales: the fetishistic appeal of Claire's Knee, the tremendous temptation in My Night at Maud's, and the earthy sexuality of Chloe in Love in the Afternoon. But each of the men in those films saw his lust as the enemy of his happiness. Here on the beach, however, the five leads all embrace their libido and are simply looking for the best way to keep their hearts safe while satisfying their desires.
