This is a haunting film that's difficult to classify combining as it does the melancholy of Uncle Vanya with background music by the Dave Brubeck quartet. The central metaphor may seem a tad labored but it's also effective: the film opens with a lyrical shot of a large, rambling country house in which young children beguile the summer afternoon in innocent games; at the end, with the matriarch dead, the house in the process of being sold and the contents dispersed to places like musee d'Orsay, the house and gardens are overrun with teenagers throwing a wild party complete with rap. In between is some class acting from the likes of Edith Scob, Charles Berling, Jeremie Renier and a blonde Juliette Binoche as mother and siblings respectively. This is a film in which pain is always below the surface and there are virtually no blow-ups signalling the unleashing of home-truths all round. This family is already fragmented long before the mother dies and has the feel of Sautet at his best - Cesar et Rosalie, Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud, Un Coeur en hiver - heady company sure but this movie can stand comparison.
Review of Summer Hours
