L'Heure d'été (Summer Hours)

L'Heure d'été (Summer Hours)

By Jonathan Fisher, April 9th, 2009


I know families like this. Hell, I'm in a family like this. Summer Hours, a movie about a family deciding what to do with a valuable art collection and house left to them by their late mother, is effective both as an illustration of the conflict between the head and the heart in matters of grief, and as a snapshot of how globalisation has changed the way family members relate to one another.

I always thought I was in a 'normal' family, but I never really reflected on how 'normal' has changed in the last fifty years. Fifty years ago, it would have been rare for a family to leave their state in Australia much more than once or twice a year. Today, families like mine and the one in Summer Hours are increasingly prominent. I have a brother who lives in London. My other brother spent a year in Geneva. I spent four months in New York last year, and my entire family has spent well over 20 years living in many foreign countries.

In Summer Hours, we meet a family at a celebration of the matriarch's 75th birthday. The mother, played by Edith Scob, is a beautiful and vivacious person who has clearly aged gracefully and well, but she knows the day will come when she'll die, and her children will have to work out what to do with the family house and her vast collection of valuable art. She takes the eldest son aside, and attempts to discuss the topic with him. He's understandably a little uncomfortable, and changes the topic. The day goes on as if nothing happened, apart from a brief conversation between the eldest son and his wife about the uncomfortable conversation.

Shortly after, the mother dies, and the reality of dealing with her possessions hits the children. The eldest son lives in Paris, and wants to keep the art and the family house. The other siblings live out of the country, and have their own valid reasons for wanting to sell everything. Jeremie (Jeremie Renier) works for Puma in China, has just been promoted to a high-paying job in Shanghai and wants to take his family to live there, admitting that he probably won't be back in France much once he moves. He is a pretty staunch capitalist -- some of the most interesting scenes in the movie are the banter between him and his brother about the validity of his work -- and sees things pragmatically, usually in terms of their monetary value. Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) lives in New York, is a little more arty and bohemian than her siblings, but also wants to sell the family house. Frederic (Charles Bering) is the only child to have stayed in France, and is probably the most sentimental of the three children, hoping to keep the house for their children and future generations of the family.

The film is written and directed by Olivier Assayas, and it reminded me of some of the great Jean Renoir's work in the way it depicts familial relations in a no-nonsense manner. Summer Hours' style harks back to the French new wave and even, to an extent, the Italian neo-realist movement. It's a movie that is rather difficult to describe, as there isn't really a plot. Assayas is more interested in the inner workings of each character, how different humans react to the loss of a close family member, and how the further loss of their possessions can have a deeper implication. These adults haven't simply lost their mother, they've lost the shiny memories of their youth. The final scene of the film is tinged with a sadness I could identify with -- a sadness that can only be alleviated by just continuing to live and love.