Paula J. Farmer​
  • HOME
  • PROJECTS
    • DOCUMENTARY
  • ARTICLES
    • Books
    • FILM
    • TRAVEL
    • FOOD & WINE
    • FEATURES
  • SILENT WATER PROD
    • About
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Long Story
    • Short Bio
    • ENDORSEMENTS
  • CONTACT

SUMMER HOURS

7/2/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Director: Olivier Assayas
Stars: Juliete Binoche, Edith Scob, Charles Berlin
Run Time: 103 min.
MPAA Rating: No Rating

​Summer Hours is a film that is as much about family, memories and inheritance as it is about economy and globalization. It’s about love and loss of family, as well as love and loss of country. The topics are handled with such subtlety and earnestness that you’re blissfully unaware of not only being presented with these intense issues, but how effected by them you are. In a word, this is director Olivier Assayas’s MASTERPIECE. 

It opens on a lazy, long summer day with kids playing along the French countryside. They eventually meet up with the rest of the family at their grandmother’s house. Hélène (Edith Scob)is the elegant matriarch of the family and the guest of honor for her 75th birthday dinner. During this gathering we glimpse Hélène’s cozy, casual country home full of beautiful and eclectic art and soft memories. The memories and the origins of the art derive from the family’s deceased uncle who is an artist. Her fondness for the artist and her sense of mortality surround her like the cashmere shawl gifted to her by one of her sons. We also sense the family dynamics between the three siblings, two brothers and one sister. They are all middle aged, living in different parts of the world leading busy lives. They love each other and have great affection for their mother but have no patience for her talk of death and inheritance.

A few short months later, Hélène has past and the siblings reunite for the funeral and to process their shock and grief. Grief quickly turns to misunderstandings and tensions as they sort through the inheritance. The elder son, Frédéric (Charles Berlin), an economist living in Paris, wants to hold onto his mom by keeping the country house and art for the family, but his siblings, while sensitive, are dismissive of the suggestion, preferring to sell it all off and divide the profits. This is where world economy seeps in: The younger brother Jérémie (Jérémie Renier) and his family live in Japan “because that’s where major corporate work is” as opposed to France. He has no need for the art and his kids have no need for weekends in the country. The sister, Adrienne (Juliet Binoche), works in art in the modern, happening cities of New York and San Francisco. She too is cavalier regarding France, her mother’s art or country home. With a heavy heart, Frédéric soon relinquish the battle for family history and fond memories, giving in to his siblings financial needs and emotional detachment. Instead, world renowned museums will battle it out for ownership of the art
​

Although this film is leisurely and quiet, it is never dull or pretentious. Although Mr. Assayas does not focus on details or plot out comprehensive character background and development, you never feel  wanting. The acting is seamless and superb. The sibling’s interactions feel real and raw. The movie ends as it starts ... masterfully.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Paula Farmer.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2015
    October 2014
    November 2012
    September 2011
    February 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2009
    December 2008
    September 2008

    Film

    All

    RSS Feed

I'd love to hear from you! Contact me through any of these social media portals.
  • HOME
  • PROJECTS
    • DOCUMENTARY
  • ARTICLES
    • Books
    • FILM
    • TRAVEL
    • FOOD & WINE
    • FEATURES
  • SILENT WATER PROD
    • About
  • BLOG
  • ABOUT
    • Long Story
    • Short Bio
    • ENDORSEMENTS
  • CONTACT