‘Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle’ By Rita Kempley Washington Post Staff Writer August 25, 1989

Director: Eric Rohmer Cast: Joelle Miguel; Jessica Forde Not rated Compare prices for this movie Find local video stores More movie shopping Save money with NextCard Visa

In this quartet of stories, Joelle Miquel plays Reinette, a principled country girl who befriends Mirabelle (Jessica Forde), a Parisian inclined to live and let live. Mirabelle meets the young villager, a talented, self-taught painter, while visiting her parents' country home. The two get on so well that Mirabelle invites Reinette, who wants to study at L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, to share her apartment in Paris.

Their exchanges, sharp as garlic and sweet as smiles, are as naive as they are knowing. They apply their differing standards to assorted dilemmas -- nothing to do with what to wear to the rock concert, mind you. The friends discuss art in "Selling the Picture," charity in "The Beggar, the Kleptomaniac, the Hustler," and what to do about nasty service in "The Waiter." "Adults are responsible for what they do," declares Reinette, whose wisdom is rote, whereas Mirabelle seems to have banged her knees on knowledge. "You can't accuse a person whose motives you don't understand."

"Four Adventures," filmed while Rohmer was waiting to film "Summer," presages that story about the "Green Ray," an apocryphal flash that occurs a split second before sunset. This movie's first chapter, "The Blue Hour," finds the sleepy girls waiting for that moment of complete silence just before daybreak. Expect no Spielbergian effects, for Rohmer works on a low budget and high imagination. Blink and you'll miss it, rustle and you'll break the spell.

There's more dialogue than plot, of course, but the heroines do get about a lot, bumping into quarrelsome boulevardiers and snobby art connoisseurs as they go. This glimpse into the Gallic mind-set is an acquired taste for those who are not fans of the fiercely anti-commercial Rohmer. It's a young adult fiction perhaps, but "Pretty in Pink" it most certainly is not.

"Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle" is in French with subtitles and is unrated.

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