In many ways "Summer Hours" is a humble film. It's about 100 minutes long, the cast is small, and there isn't a hint of sentimentality or melodrama in it. Yet it's the kind of film I wish I was exposed to more often. "Summer Hours" is a french film and it shows why the French have such a rich history of cinema, it follows the tradition of humanity seen in the best films of Renoir and Truffaut. It deals with universal themes such as life and death, and the passing of time. It's a film which doesn't show its cards in the very first viewing, you become involved in it because it's so inviting. I'm sometimes asked why I like foreign films so much, I look at "Summer Hours" as an example, it's such an escape from the norm of Hollywood, it's a patient and calm film, I'm not bombarded by it, I'm immersed in it, I am able to take it all in.
"Summer Hours" begins at the birthday party of a matriarch Helene (Edith Scob). Helene lives in her old summer house which she shared with her famous painter Uncle who died long ago. She has preserved his art along with rare collectible items in the house, yet she is very practical, she's seventy-five, she knows she isn't going to live forever. Her children are all grown living lives of their own and she is prepared that when she is gone her summer house along all the famous art will have to be sold.
Helene does in fact die early in the film, and the rest of the story has the children going through the process of selling the estate. The eldest son Frederic (Charles Berling) is the most reluctant, he wants to keep the house for their children, and he's certain the rest of his siblings feel the same way, but it comes to a complete shock to him that they don't. Jeremie the youngest works in Asia, and has just been promoted, he decides to move to China permanently as he sees it best for his family. The sister is Adrienne (Juliette Binoche), she lives in New York where her career is, she's also getting married and doesn't have a practical reason to keep the estate.
It is decided to sell the estate, and since Frederic is the only one of the children still living in France, he is in charge of making most of the decisions. Throughout the film we go from the closing up of the house, to the appraisal of the artifacts, to seeing them in a museum, and we close with Frederic's children having one last party at the house.
In many ways "Summer Hours" is about moving on, and accepting that the memories we have also die with us. It may seem sentimental and foolish to think those memories live on. The last time we see Helene, she has a wonderful speech about how she knows when she dies, secrets will go with her that nobody will know of. There is speculation in the film of Helene's relationship with her painter Uncle, something Frederic wasn't prepared to accept, yet nothing is really ever made clear.
But this is also about the dissolution of a family unit, and when that happens it always makes me think of the films by Ozu.In Ozu's films, there is always an event' be it either a death or a marriage which signifies something is ending in a family unit, "Summer Hours" makes the same comment with the mother's death. Helene was the only link of the family to keep them all together. The only time we see everyone together is in the beginning on her birthday. It becomes apparent that after the house is sold, the siblings will see less and less of eachother. It's important to point out that director Olivier Assayas doesn't sentimentalize this at all, he leaves it sort of as an unspoken void. There are no heartfelt goodbyes, probably because they believe they will see eachother in some capacity, but also because they are all busy people raising their own families and running their own lives. There always seems to be this disconnect between them that isn't mentioned.
What "Summer Hours" does so beautifully is keeping an objective point of view. There are no bad people in this film, we don't resent Jeremie and Adrienne for their decision of selling the estate, yet we sympathize with Frederic's predicament. Assayas shows the selling of the estate as a tough decision, and what a perfect world it would be if they didn't have all the demands of real life. Assayas doesn't dwell on these things, life goes on, but what he is conveying is that it is a tragedy when we are forced to give up the past, breaking that link for the next generation. It's no coincidence Assayas begins the film with Frederic's children playing in the fields of the estate, and ending it with the daughter who knows she is losing a part of her history. It's bittersweet, but the power of human nature is we can acknowledge it and move on, which makes "Summer Hours" such a moving film.
When I fist saw "Summer Hours" I couldn't quite get it out of my head, it stayed with me. I picked it as my favorite movie of 2009, because it was the film that had a lasting impression on me, there's so much I could appreciate. The camera movement was so fluid, which was also a trademark of Renoir. Watch how it goes in and out of rooms at different points, being able to follow multiple characters. The beauty part is how it isn't distracting and you hardly notice it. The performances are all natural, but I wanted to mention two scenes that stood out for me. One is Helene's final scene which I mentioned somewhat above. Her children have just left, she is alone only with her loyal maid. The scene is dimly lit. She tells of how her children have their own lives and she isn't a part of them anymore, then she speaks of not wanting to leave the past behind. To me it's one of the most understated emotional scenes in modern movies.
The second scene is with Juliette Binoche as Adrienne. Binoche to me is one of the greatest actresses working today. It's the scene where she has just seen her mother's casket. She comes into a waiting room where her boyfriend is waiting there. It is one of those moments where her face says it all what she is feeling, all done with no dialogue, and the camera just stays on her face.
I think what I would want more of in films are faces, Bergman called it the most powerful thing to film. I don't get enough of those moments, where we are only asked to observe, there are no quick cutaways, you don't have to interpret anything, it's all there on the screen, it's film in its simplest form, and nothing to me can be more powerful.
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