The green ray

Delphine’s summer holiday plans have gone down the drain. The Parisian secretary sets off on an aimless odyssey through France: ‘Delphine is alone in La Plagne in the mountains, occasionally with friends in Cherbourg, lonely on the beach at Biarritz; she occasionally bursts into tears and hides behind a façade of nonchalance (…). But eventually she sees what can only be seen on cloudless, clear days, in the second after sunset – the green glow over the sea.” (Harry Tomiczek, Austrian Film Museum)

‘Rohmer takes his cue from the seemingly simplest of stories – and that is precisely where his genius shines through. He takes everyday, almost banal people and situations – in this case, a secretary whose holiday plans fall through – and turns them into a kind of spiritual journey. Le rayon vert was a revelation to me (…). The film is a psychological study, a philosophical discourse, an astonishingly sober portrait of longings, feelings, opinions, thoughts, of glances and gestures, of awkward, clumsy moments – emotionally, intellectually and, in a subtle, extremely subtle way, incredibly tragic.” (Richard Linklater, Austin Film Society)