User Reviews

"Summer Hours" begins, appropriately, with hordes of children running joyfully through a garden. They're on a treasure hunt, following a map written in invisible ink.

Director Olivier Assays then introduces us to Helene Berthier, an elderly woman whose children and grandchildren have gathered at her home in rural France. Helene was once romantically linked to a character called Paul, a now dead artist who was renowned for his paintings.

Helene's home is filled with both Paul's work (a vast collection of priceless art) and more mundane personal items which nevertheless have tremendous sentimental value. One photograph, for example, features an older generation of Berthiers sitting at a table exactly as the current generation are.

As the film unfolds, Assayas lays the groundwork for various heavy themes: the way what we "treasure" changes as we age, how art and objects tie people to the past, the relationship between art, globalisation and commerce, the seemingly arbitrary and shifting "value" of objects, the question of what defines art and what makes art meaningful, how spaces are "deterritorialized" and "reterritorialized" under capitalism, how objects transform as they move from space to space etc etc. You might say this is the "rural" version of Assayas's "Demonlover", "Clean" and "Boarding Gate", but whilst those films focused on the way humans are stripped, sold, traded and pushed around under techno-capitalism, "Summer Hours" focuses almost entirely on man's fluctuating relationship with both inanimate objects and product.

Early in the film, Helene reveals the reason for calling a family assembly: she wants to discuss the fate of the family estate after her death. Frederic, Helene's eldest son, is an economist, and is the only family member who wishes (for sentimental reasons) to hold on to the estate and its artwork. Daughter Adrienne (a product designer) and younger son Jeremie (who works for a mega corporation in Shaghai) both want to sell the estate. It's of no value to them, they won't be able to visit it as they work far abroad, and it simply isn't economical to maintain. Frederic doesn't agree with them at first, but gradually the practical needs of commerce infringe on his desire to hold on to the past. Reluctantly he agrees with them. Significantly, Adrienne, the product of a system which destroys the past and sells nostalgic copies, makes tacky ceramic ornaments based on the designs of her uncle.

Assayas stresses that the children are all ultra-modern bourgeois, part of a "new France" that is beholden to the demands of the global market and that is gradually losing ties with its traditions and heritage. Casual remarks highlight this theme: characters speaking of new companies popping up in their village, once taboo romantic relationships accepted as the norm, the fact that Adrienne lives in two of the citadels of Global Capitalism (New York and Japan), the fact that Jeremie is moving his family to China to better manage a mass production shoe factory and the mention that Jeremie's children will learn English and not speak French (thereby cutting them off from their cultural roots).

Ironically, it's the one economist in the family who can't cope with the way his family, culture and historical treasure trove are being torn apart. Frederic frequently states that he believes the "economy as a functional system" is a myth. He recognises that economism is the new global religion, in which the world is reordered in the service of irrational and incessant growth. The dominant theology of this religion is neo-liberalism, which aims to make the whole world a single market, national boundaries no longer a factor in economic affairs. Unlike most religions, economism looks to growth for salvation, salvation being "freedom" from poverty and the ills that accompany it. When it is pointed out that the "new religion" has not in fact done much toward reducing poverty, believers are told that they must be more faithful to the precepts of the religion.

Of course while the believers wait, the machine's greed outgrows the capacity of the real economy to satisfy. In response, the great centres of finance get the governments of the world to make available to them, by privatisation, all of their possessions. But still this does not suffice! How could it? Debt based Ponzi schemes cannot be satiated. And so the market becomes increasingly abstract, debts ignored or traded as "value" whilst virtual economies balloon to something like five times the size of the "real" economy. The end result is the world Assayas' characters find themselves in: groundless and always moving to keep the whole sham from collapsing.

In one scene, Frederic proudly displays paintings for his children, telling them that one day the collection will be all theirs. But though his kids look up at the artwork with indifference, implying that they are "cut off" from the "treasures of the past", Assayas is careful to show that Frederic is himself deluded, unable to look upon the pictures without bias. His pleasure is clearly less about the aesthetic qualities of art/past, than it is about family legacy, memory and the continuation of a family history. His children, able to look at the paintings without bias, simply dismiss them as old-fashioned. The result is that the film manages to mourns the obliteration/repackaging of the past whilst also questioning if anything is really being lost. Does the worth of an object reside only in the historical and familial remembrances of concerned individuals?

The film ends with a sequence which mirrors its first shot. Here Helene's granddaughter looks on at the abandoned family home, trying but failing to position her body such that it recreates a "painting of the place" that Paul once did. It's a deeply sad ending; no longer connected by shared place or possessions, the modern subject is both adrift and defined by loss.

8.9/10 – A great film, though perhaps too word oriented.

'Summer Hours' (otherwise known as L'Heure D'ete) is the story of three siblings who must decide what to do with the family house and most of the property in it after their mother passes away. The movie begins with the siblings (Frederic, Adrienne and Jeremie) visiting their mother Helene at the mother's home. Adrienne is now living in the US with a boyfriend and Jeremie has just gotten a promotion in China where he lives with his wife and children. Frederic is the only sibling who still lives in France and is an economist who has just written a controversial book disparaging his own profession.

We find out in an overly long Act I that Helene was a champion of a famous artist who happened to be her uncle. It's not clear whether Helene was intimately involved with the uncle but apparently favored him over her husband. She has kept some of his art work, sketch books and other items he purchased while he was alive and now orders Frederic to sell everything including the house.

After Helene dies, Frederic wants to keep the house and all the heirlooms but is overruled by Adrienne and Jeremie. Frederic finally gives in, the house is put up for sale and a good deal of the artwork and furniture is bequeathed to the Musee D'Orsay (museum). There is a subplot toward the end where Frederic's teenage daughter is almost arrested for shoplifting and drug possession but a kindly police officer only lets her off with a warning. The film ends with the daughter holding a party with her teenage friends just before the house is sold to new owners.

The film's strength lies in very strong portraits of the three siblings and their mother. We find out quite a bit about their careers as well as how they interact with their respective spouses. The dialogue can best be described as both mature and sharp. Particularly impressive are the scenes where the siblings cope with the death of their mother. Frederic is perhaps most affected by his mother's death—there's a strong scene where he stops his car and is overcome with emotion—unable to stifle the tears due to his mother's sudden passing.

The film's weakness involves the plot. Up until the midpoint of the film we're absorbed in the conflict between Frederic and his two siblings over the disposition of the property. When that issue is resolved (Frederic cannot counter his siblings' need for money), the story feels like it has ended. There is a very long-winded section where we learn about the mechanics of bequeathing artwork to a museum but all of this feels like a footnote to the main conflict which has come to an end.

The point is made that when a person comes to the end of their life, all their possessions which might have had so much meaning to them, no longer matters to the next generation. It's a point that needs to be made but not drawn out as it was done here. What's lost is the conflict between the characters; instead in its place we're given more of a lecture on art history and restoration akin to a Discovery Channel documentary.

Summer Hours has no dark moment for the protagonist unless you call Frederic's daughter's near-arrest a moment of crisis. There is also no real antagonist left at the film's climax to create tension in the storyline. In a sense, the passage of time is the antagonist. The ending is supposed to be wistful—a bunch of teenagers party at the family home completely oblivious to the rich memories and traditions the house evokes.

Despite the weakness of its story which peters out in the second half, Summer Hours has some great characters and dialogue. The film is worth seeing due to the maturity of the subject matter and superb acting on the part of the cast.

Helene, the matriarch of a well to do French family, living in a rural setting, is celebrating her 75th birthday. Her three children, Frederic, Jeremie, and Adrienne have come to have lunch with her. The two sons are married, but their sister is not married, although she is seeing someone. Only Frederic still lives in France. Jeremie is an executive now working in China. Adrienne is a designer that has made New York her home.

After lunch, Helene summons Frederic to her office to discuss what she wants to do with her possessions once she is dead. She has amassed a large collection of paintings and objet d'art, scattered all over the rambling house. Frederic is disturbed by what he his mother wants him to do, but since he is the only close by, he must be in charge. One thing Helene knows is the value of each piece in her valuable collection. Frederic has wanted to keep the paintings, especially the two Corot landscapes as part of their heritage. Most of the work was collected by an uncle who favored Helene and whose relationship with her is not completely explained, although one suspects there was some kind of incestuous liaison between them.

Unfortunately Helene dies a year after we first met her, leaving the siblings in a quandary. Adrienne is the practical one; she knows the tax bite will be enormous and the way about it is to donate the art work to the Musee D'Orsay, interested in most of the furniture and the rest. The older housekeeper Eloise is offered to take something from the house as a souvenir for herself to remember the family and ends up taking a valuable glass sculpture because she always thought it was so ugly that no one would like it.

"L'heure d'ete" is a fine movie written and directed by Oliver Assayas. There is a lot of symbolism in the way the story is presented. One can draw several conclusions about how the estate is being divided since Frederic, one feels, is the only one that shows any appreciation to the significance of letting go of the things he grew admiring and thought they would stay with the family forever, only to see it go to museums in order to avoid inheritance taxes. Mr. Assayas is taking a hard view at the two siblings that have fled the coop and have no interest in keeping what Frederic thought was rightly theirs.

This is a French film and the main idea is that in spite of what the three brothers think about the way to solve their problem, they still are civil and talk in a mature tone to one another. We liked Charles Berling as Frederic. He feels a quiet rage at losing control of the inevitable and to the things he loved. The Adrienne of Juliette Binoche is perfect in her take of this woman who has left everything behind to make a new life. Jeremie Renier, who can be seen in the current "Le silence de Lorna", and who has worked with the Dardenne brothers, in his native Belgium, was a surprise; he even looks different as the executive living so far away. We also enjoy Edith Scob's quiet intensity as Helene. Behind her serene exterior, there is nothing but a steel resolve to have things done according to her will.

Eric Gautier's cinematography does wonders for the enjoyment of the film. This is one of Oliver Assayas' most heartfelt movies. The director knew his characters well and it translates into a film that was a joy to sit through.

Olivier Assayas's tale of three siblings who have to deal with the aftermath of their mother's death.

A good film but hardly the knock out that many of the local New York papers made it out to be. The film works in small moments, moments or odd passages. The opening of the film as we watch the family buzzing around the familial home for the matriarch's 75th birthday is very real and you have the feeling that perhaps we are intruding on a real family.A later scene where the mother corners her son and explains what she wants after she goes will echo with anyone who has had that sort of conversation with a parent. A later scene where the members of the family visit a museum and see their mother's things there is funny because of how they react to the art and telling in that it kind of puts the detritus of our lives in perspective. The rest is good but it didn't completely hang with me.

For me the film is possibly the best film that I've seen by Olivier Assayas. I've seen Clean, Boarding Gate and a couple of others and this seems to be the first time where he didn't loose the plot or seem to take left turns suddenly to keep things going. I will say that the film suffers a slight case of feeling constructed instead of natural (this is the films major flaw). Once we get the mother and son going over her wishes (which works as a scene unto itself) the film seems destined in some way to follow a certain course and hit certain moments in a preordained way. The naturalness of the first fifteen or twenty minutes where everything flowed nicely is replaced by good solid scenes that were placed in their spot with care that isn't as life like. I'm annoyed because I was so certain that I was going to love this film from the opening moments, only I found that I ended up linking it instead.

Still its a good film and worth a look, though I think you may be wise to do what I did and see it on cable.(This was one of the choices of the IFC in Theaters on demand service) since I can't in all honesty recommend this for 11 bucks a head in a theater.

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.

This film has a soft, subtle tone set forth by the matriarch of the family, wonderfully cast as and gracefully played by Edith Scob. If I tick off some of the plot points, the film seems like it could be one mustering a lot of blustering emotion, but it never really does.

Thus I am actually a bit taken aback by the notions that this is a film of a dysfunctional family. Sure the family is fragmented, as is any family as its members not only grow up, but necessarily grow apart. If anything, I think this film is gentle in addressing that. I actually thought the family was strikingly functional, at least by cinematic standards.

Anyways, here come the spoilers, I'd certainly recommend watching this film, ideally before reading any further...

In the film we have

1) the death of said matriarch

2) an ensuing disagreement on what to do with the inheritance

3) notions of a scandalous affair involving the matriarch and her famous artist uncle

4) the matriarch's granddaughter gets arrested for shoplifting and possession

In particular, #2 above is propped up as a potential explosive point, but the two brothers and one sister seem to reconcile their disagreements with extreme civility, and indeed despite the elder son's executor intentions, the family ends up choosing what the mother had wisely selected. Surely a sobering decision for her, and I think the crux of the film.

A lot of the above tensions are actually resolved off screen, again I think putting the focus off any sort of familial fireworks.

So while we may see the wild, farewell-to-the-estate party by the granddaughter and her cohorts as oblivious to the treasures that were once housed there, there is a moment out in the tall grass, where the granddaughter recollects her ancestor's memories, and a subtle shade of the love that touched a young Helene was more memorable than any future museum piece she may have touched. Helene passed that moment somehow through to her granddaughter, framed not in a canvas, or even in the light as it struck the model of the original picture, but in sensation of that specific moment.

Are such moments what are hopes to capture, if not inspire?

In contrast, the desk that leaves the estate for the museum is then shown partially occluded on screen and largely ignored by the throngs that press past it.

Look, I love museums myself, but even more so I love the people I attend them with. Watch this film with one of those people (my wife also enjoyed this film, subtitles and all!)

I loved this movie. The discussion about the value of artefacts ( of whether they are given their meanings because of their use, their historical importance or their particular emotional value) is spread throughout the movie so successfully that it made me remember the first time I went to my grandmother's house after she died. It made me look at the museums from a different, almost negative perspective. The acting, the locations, the details are all really good. The house itself is a glorious place. Charles Berling's performance is really touching. I loved how real and simple the story is without an exaggerated family drama.

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.