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My search for human characters led me to the late French director Eric Rohmer and his late period movie, Conte d’automne (Autumn Tale). Eric Rohmer movies are very comforting because his people have the same ordinary, largely uneventful lives we do, but the way they analyze their desires and motives makes them more interesting. Watching Autumn Tale again, it occurred to me that it would work as a Tagalog movie—well-meaning friends interfering with each other’s lives, trying to play matchmaker, and complicating simple situations.

Isabelle and Magali have been friends since childhood. Both are in their mid-40s, with two grown-up children apiece. Isabelle, who is happily married, runs a bookstore in town; Magali, a widow, runs a vineyard which she hardly ever leaves. Magali has a son, Leo, who is dating his classmate, Rosine. Before Leo, Rosine had a relationship with her much older professor, Etienne; she broke it off, he’s in love with her, they’re trying to be friends but it’s difficult. Rosine tells Etienne that she won’t see him until he finds another girlfriend. Rosine has grown very close to Magali, an intelligent but prickly woman who doesn’t get along with her own daughter or with Isabelle’s.

This is Magali. She has very big hair.

Magali confesses to Isabelle and Rosine that she misses having a man in her life, and the two pakialamera promptly get to work. Unbeknownst to Magali, Isabelle puts a personal ad in the local paper and vets potential dates for Magali. Rosine breaks her own rule not to see Etienne, and convinces him to meet Magali. Meanwhile Isabelle meets Gerald, who had answered the personal ad, and she pretends that she is Magali. It takes Isabelle three lunches with Gerald to decide that he’s perfect for Magali. She wants everyone to fall in love with her, especially the men she’s not in love with, she tells Gerald, although it is also possible that she is attracted to Gerald. Finally she reveals that she’s auditioning him for her friend, and Gerald is not pleased at first, but allows himself to be persuaded. Rosine spots Isabelle and Gerald in the parking lot and hides; she tells Etienne that when she sees two people together she assumes there may be something going on. Oddly enough she insists that there is nothing going on between her and Etienne but friendship.

This is pretty Rosine with her ex and ex-teacher Etienne, who is attractive in the big-nosed French way.

Independently of each other, Isabelle and Rosine arrange to have their candidates (Gerald and Etienne) meet Magali at the wedding of Isabelle’s daughter. At the buffet Magali strikes up a conversation with Gerald and they clearly hit it off. Rosine pulls Magali away to introduce her to Etienne; they do not hit it off, and Magali is downright hostile. Meanwhile Gerald reports to Isabelle that the introduction was a complete success; Isabelle gives him a drunken/affectionate kiss just as Magali walks in. Magali hurries off, thinking Gerald is Isabelle’s lover.

Isabelle took three secret lunches to decide that Gerald was a suitable date for Magali.

At the same party Etienne runs into a former student of his, a very attractive girl. Rosine sees them apparently flirting and gets angry. Magali wants to go home immediately, but her son Leo has gone off in her car to watch a football game so she has to wait. Isabelle discovers Magali sulking and tells her that another guest is going her way and can drive her home. She introduces Magali to the other guest. Of course it is Gerald.

Etienne drives Rosine home and she picks a fight with him over the former student. Gerald drives Magali home, and she interrogates him about how he met Isabelle. Then she realizes that Isabelle had published a personal ad. She gets all prickly and tells Gerald to drop her off at the train station, she’s going to visit her daughter. Gerald is confused, but she cannot be swayed. She goes into the train station and sits there until she’s sure Gerald has left. Gerald waits a bit, but finally drives off.

Magali takes a taxi back to Isabelle’s house, where she confronts her friend over the personal ad. Isabelle explains, they discuss, then they have a good laugh. It’s just too bad, Magali says; she liked Gerald but had behaved so strangely he would never want to see her again. Just then Gerald appears to tell Isabelle what her friend had done.