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May 26, 2009
The gentle pathos & wisdom of ‘Summer Hours’
American moviegoers looking for lucid storytelling and mature drama have learned that there is rarely a place for them in the mutliplexes during the summer.
Once the would-be Oscar contenders and Oscar winners have had their day in the sun during the first few months of the year, it is basically kiddie time at the local bijou.
Who over the age of 15 wants to see “Terminator Salvation” or a sequel to “Night at the Museum”?
Fortunately, the art film distruibutors have learned to release some of their best foreign and indie fare during the summer for adults who are desperate to see a movie with substance.
A prime example of this smart “counterprogramming” is “Summer Hours,” the superb new French film about a wealthy, scattered clan trying to figure out what to do with the home and possessions of their mother.
Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, the drama deals with that struggle most of us go through when someone we love dies — how do we hold on to the memories of a wonderful relationship without being swamped by nostalgia and grief?
We meet the matriarch Helene (Edith Scob) and her three grown children — Frederic (Charles Berling), Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) and Jeremie (Jeremie Renier) — in a warm and frantic opening sequence showing their final summer reunion at Helene’s beautiful, rambling country home.
The three “children” are there to celebrate mom’s 75th birthday. She levels with Frederic about the need to start thinking about how her estate will be settled after her death — in addition to the very valuable country estate, Helene has lots of important art work and furnishings left to her by a beloved uncle who was a famous painter.
We can see right away that Frederic is more involved with family life and family history than his younger siblings — Adrienne lives in New York City where she works as a designer and Jeremie is a businessman tied to Puma in China.
Assayas captures that melancholy air surrounding annual summer get togethers where the scattering of modern families becomes more apparent with each passing year — relationships that used to be daily affairs are now a once-a-year occasion.
The director introduces us to all of the major characters in a deceptively informal manner — we meet the wives of the two brothers and their children as well as the elderly maid Eloise (Isabelle Sadoyan).
“Summer Hours” moves forward several months — after Helene’s death — and we get the heart of the story: how the family reacts to the loss of the woman who was really the only thing holding them together.
Frederic wants to keep the country home and its art objects as a shrine to Helene and a place for continuing family reunions. Adrienne and Jeremie level with the brother — their lives and careers are not likely to allow for many visits to France, so it makes more sense to sell Helene’s home and art and to divide the proceeds three ways.
The people in “Summer Hours” are loving and reasonable so there are no big emotional explosions, but Assayas very subtly shows us the tension between the siblings.
He also allows us to share Frederic’s profound feeling of loss — the man's painful recognition of the fact that without Helene, there won’t be much of an extended family life for him in the future.
(“Summer Hours” is now playing at the Avon Theatre in Stamford and is scheduled to open at the Bow Tie Criterion Cinemas in New Haven on June 5.)
Posted by Joe on May 26, 2009 4:32 PM
