THE PROLOGUE for Eric Rohmer's situation comedy Pauline at the Beach is a proverb from Chretian de Troyes--"A Wagging Tongue Bites Itself Off." That simple phrase captures perfectly the essence of this French film, in which the adults often act like children and the children seem like mature adults. It is set at a small resort town in Brittany, where the young and old characters claim they understand what love is--they discuss it incessantly and they try to capture it. But in the end they discover they have only flirted with passion.

On the surface, Pauline at the Beach shows the various relationships developing between several characters who meet on the beach. Fifteen-year-old Pauline travels to the seaside with her absolutely gorgeous cousin Marion who, though much older, has very immature ideas about love. Pauline is more down-to-earth than her cousin and has few if any illusions.

Rohmer always chooses dark-eyed, dark-haired actresses to play his heroines, and Amanda Langlet as Pauline is no exception; her short, dark hair; belies a fresh, untouched femininity waiting to bud. Her adolescence is just beginning to bloom and rather than being shocked or even interested by Marion's sexual exploits and feelings about love, she stands back dispassionately and absorbs it all as if it was merely a scene on a stage. Langlet seduces the audience with her gentleness and silent wisdom about her own life and about the lives unfolding around her.

The beach serves as the mating ground for both Pauline and Marion. Pauline dabbles a bit with passion by dating (if one can call it that) a young boy Sylvain (Simon de la Brosse) she herself meets on the beach. But most of the romanticism is Marion's. While bathing she runs into an old flame. Pierre (Pascal Gregory) whose heart and body still burns for Marion, who dumped him five years before to get married. But Pierre loves Marion too much, and in his own bumbling, cute way betrays the mystery she's looking for--and finds in the devilishly attractive Henri (Feodor Atkine). Pierre runs after Marion while she runs after Henri who in turn runs after the local candy seller Louissette (Rosette). A series of confusions sprout. Henri does not want commitments, preferring women who will give into his needs for the moment and then flit out of his life. Marion desires love, true love, a love that will make her soul "burn forever."

All the broken hearts, the lies, the misunderstandings, the misinterpreted love, fit into Rohmer's theme about hard-to-grasp amour. The adults, especially Marion, delude themselves until fantasies become reality. They never learn to accept the truth--the beach at off season for them is a time to be carefree, to forget the world around them. When they get too tired or too bored, they simply leave in search of yet another chance to live in a world made of dreams.

But with Pauline as the most practical member of the beach party, Rohmer shows that adults are always trying to capture the simplicity of youth. In Rohmer's world, the adults refuse to accept reality, and gradually the children get swept into an adult world where people manipulate others in order to have a good time. These adults constantly wag their tongues in search of happiness and usually get so carried away they bite their tongues off.