Film Festival 09 - Summer Hours
Summer Hours
L'heure d'été, France 2008, 102m
Director: Olivier Assayas
Festivals: Edinburgh, Toronto, New York, Vancouver, San Sebastian
2008; San Francisco 2009
This lyrical, Chekhovian drama brings three adult siblings together
to settle the estate of their late mother (the magisterial Edith
Scob). Gathering at the lovely house they must agree to keep or to
sell, surrounded by the exquisite collection she herself inherited
from the artist uncle she revered, they measure the weight of their
mother's desires and each other's.
"A warm, wise drama about the tensions and mysteries of family
life& It chronicles the interactions between the various
characters with psychological subtlety and precision, even as it
explores the changing roles played by art, property, work and
blood-ties in an increasingly globalised world& It's a film of
deft, delicate nuances, particularly alert to the fact that
everyone has not only his/her reasons but also, inevitably, secrets
that will be borne to the grave. Perhaps the characters are finally
a little too uniformly decent, but it would be churlish to bemoan
the generosity of spirit in a film so beautifully performed,
intelligently written and fluently directed." - Geoff Andrew, Time
Out.
"Impeccably civilised drama& The oldest brother (Charles
Berling) clings to the old house and the two Corots that will have
to be sold, while his far-flung siblings (Juliette Binoche,
Jérémie Renier) have stronger attachments to their
careers in America and Asia respectively. The problems of an
haut-bourgeois family might seem trivial in world terms, but
Olivier Assayas's script asks deeper questions about ownership and
the public purpose of art. Berling, as the melancholy nostalgist
standing, Canute-like, before the waves of change, is especially
good." - Anthony Quinn, The Independent
In French with English subtitles
www.summerhours.com.au
