Summer of 85 (2020)

A story of first love, its pleasures and its pains.

If the success of a film is how long it stays with you after you see it, this for me is a very successful movie. The intensity of its lead actor, Felix Lefebvre, has a lot to do with it. It's a mighty performance in a challenging role, with emotional highs and lows following each other as fast as the roller-coaster ride he takes with his beloved (played by the charismatic Benjamin Voisin). Joy and sorrow bubble up volcanically in Lefebvre's innocent face in scene after scene.

Francois Ozon is a skilled writer/director. The taut screenplay, inspired by Adrian Chambers book "Dance on my Grave", is itself something of a ballet, moving fleetly from teen romance to psychological melodrama to domestic comedy, adriotly shifting tone without ever undermining the whole. The best moments are when Ozon juxtaposes ideas in a way that no one else, except possibly Almadovar, ever could -- for example, Voisin's character, David, is given a long, almost mythological entry into the film, a kind of maritime parallel to Omar Sharif's approach to the camera in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. But here David is coming to the rescue of Lefebvre's endangered Alex. It takes real artistic bravura to slow the film down at this moment to let us see David as Alex sees him, as a handsome hero coming to the rescue. It's risky, and it works. As does a similar but different scene later in the film, at a noisy club, when listen with Alex, through his headphones, to the Rod Stewart track 'Sailing" while everyone else dances silently around.

There's quite a bit of plot, many excellent supporting actors, and a lot of comedy. But there's also, sometimes at the same time, heartbreak. Ozon, and Lefebvre's power-house acting, keep all the different plates spinning. Quite an achievement.

Fmovies: I wonder if Francois Ozon has lost his touch a little bit. This is the guy who made riveting, distressing, transgressive films like "Sitcom" and "Criminal Lovers". While he still has the ability to shock by showing you something different, I thought "Double Lover" was a tedious story aside from such moments, and the same has to be said for "Ete 85".

It opens with an extraordinary sequence of events. A teen is sailing in a boat which capsizes. He is rescued by another teen, who takes him to his home, where not only does his mother run a bath for the beleaguered boy, she also strips him naked and is plainly seen to be inspecting his goods.

The movie doesn't keep up with surprising moments like these, however. It turns into an undercooked story of a homosexual love affair between these two boys, which ends in tragedy, as they so often do. We don't see enough of the two of them together to really believe in or care about their romance, and the characters never really come alive.

You get the impression that the ending is supposed to be touching, but it really wasn't.

Ozon is known for his frank and uncompromising approach to sex in films, so it is a surprise that there's none to be found here. The movie literally leaves us at the bedroom door when the boys have their first night of love: the door shuts on the camera, leaving us stranded in the hallway.

It also introduces a charming, homely English girl, who we are later expected to believe has caused problems for the boys' relationship. But how? Perhaps, as a gay man, Ozon doesn't know how to cast a real femme fatale who could actually end something like two teenage boys' first gay romance.

It's impossible not to be wowed by the sheer visual beauty of this film. François Ozon's 'Summer of 85' looks gorgeous but, unfortunately, not quite good enough to completely save it from its plodding plot with flat, annoying characters. An embarrassing misfire.

Summer of 85 fmovies. Normandy, 1985. Alexis and David begin an unlikely friendship after an incident at sea. The story telling is interesting, François Ozon style, the typical plot to appeal for feelings and emotions, but that sometimes (as is the case in this film) falls too much into the melodramatic. There's nothing mind blowing, or double-sided characters, it is a simple summer love story, where there's a side of innocence and illusion about the first love to contrast with a rebellious and non-conformist side, of fleeting relationships. The aesthetics and sonority perfectly captures the 80's vibe, in a fantastic 16mm film. Those who liked 'Call Me by Your Name' will certainly like 'Été 85', given the similarities and inspirations that the director sought after Luca Guadagnino's great success. The protagonists have talent, and above all, chemistry, essential for a film of this kind to work. It's a nice way to end the (strange) summer of 2020.

The latest Francois Ozon's 16mm release * Ete 85* is quiet disappointing comparison to his previous works such as Sitcom, 8 femmes, La Piscine, Gouttes D'eau Sur Pierre Brulantes and Amant Double. It seems like he wanted to create the sense of atmosphere in between Call me by your name and his 1996 short film Une rob D'ete. The film has some great songs in soundtrack such as Cruel Summer from Bananarama, Rod Stewart's Sailing in disco scene and closing song from The Cure with In Between Days. Rating: 5.5 out of 10

"Be that as it may, even as a minor Ozon's work, SUMMER OF 85 is well-conceived and constructed in a holistic level, not least for recreating the 80s laidback ambience that matches the film's alluring scenery, and the savvy message of moving-on. But Yours Truly cannot dispel a faint whiff of disappointment, entering the third decade of feature filmmaking, when will Ozon's career reach a prefigured apotheosis is still anybody's guess. Patience must be reserved to both his devotees and the quondam wunderkind himself."

read the full review on my blog: cinema omnivore