Olivier Assayas' film Summer Hours is very French and very much without any real 'hardcore' melodrama. That is to say we do not get scenes where a family yells at each other in grief or anything like that. This is more steeped in realism, so all the drama is based on little things, the details: what happens to the objects that have been in possession of the family house for years and years after the matriarch dies? What are the objects worth, or can they be sold or given away, or kept within the family? Or should the house even be sold at all? It's these little things, that are actually quite large and looming in the consciousness of a family that has just lost their mother/grandmother, and makes up the bare minimum of dramatic conflict in the film.
It's basically about three siblings, one lives in France, another in New York, and another in China. They barely can get altogether to see their 75 year old mother, who was once a very prominent artist and coming from a genius painter. The mother dies (this is not a spoiler since, frankly, it has to mentioned), and then the kids have to decide what to do next with her estate. This is stuff that usually one wouldn't think could make for compelling stuff, and indeed if there is a weakness it may be that his film is a bit, how to say simplistic: talky. Yes, it's a lot like a play (one critic compared it to Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, which I could see in the sense of it being about quibbling among siblings), but only so often do we see some real artistry on the part of Assayas. He's too busy giving us real life, which is only as occasionally really interesting as he thinks it is all the time (indeed we even get some limited familial drama with the Parisian father and his rambunctious teenage daughter who gets arrested).
Oh sure, if you love French cinema, and Juliette Binoche, it's worth your time... actually, Binoche is only in it for a third of the running time, but you shouldn't be expecting a big high-emotional drama, save for a few moments here and there. There's even a touching end, as a party takes place at the house and the teenage girl remarks simply "My grandmother is dead, her house is sold" and goes on her merry way. Little things like that stand out, but you have to watch for them, or they'll slip away. Like memories.
It's basically about three siblings, one lives in France, another in New York, and another in China. They barely can get altogether to see their 75 year old mother, who was once a very prominent artist and coming from a genius painter. The mother dies (this is not a spoiler since, frankly, it has to mentioned), and then the kids have to decide what to do next with her estate. This is stuff that usually one wouldn't think could make for compelling stuff, and indeed if there is a weakness it may be that his film is a bit, how to say simplistic: talky. Yes, it's a lot like a play (one critic compared it to Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, which I could see in the sense of it being about quibbling among siblings), but only so often do we see some real artistry on the part of Assayas. He's too busy giving us real life, which is only as occasionally really interesting as he thinks it is all the time (indeed we even get some limited familial drama with the Parisian father and his rambunctious teenage daughter who gets arrested).
Oh sure, if you love French cinema, and Juliette Binoche, it's worth your time... actually, Binoche is only in it for a third of the running time, but you shouldn't be expecting a big high-emotional drama, save for a few moments here and there. There's even a touching end, as a party takes place at the house and the teenage girl remarks simply "My grandmother is dead, her house is sold" and goes on her merry way. Little things like that stand out, but you have to watch for them, or they'll slip away. Like memories.