Prolific French writer/director Olivier Assayas receives another outing on British screens this summer with the fittingly titled SUMMER HOURS. But before I start I have to warn you that this film is incredibly high brow, even for an arthouse movie. In fact it was so high brow and so crammed with high society characters that I returned home from the screening with altitude sickness. That said, this film is a wide-ranging story of family, love and money in today’s international, postmodern world. An ambitious project, SUMMER HOURS is composed of layers and layers of detail that take lots of concentration to peel away.
The structure of the narrative is centred on three siblings (each with their own family and career) who meet at the country home inhabited by their mother and he long-serving maid Éloïse. It’s the only time of the year they’re all together and it’s a long standing family tradition. But this year their mother seems morbid. She has begun planning for her death and wants arrangements made for the house and its collection of valuable antiques, among them many works, sketches, and general bric-a-brac belonging to their uncle who happens to be a famous artist. After the gathering we witness her passing away and the siblings become divided over the resultant decisions, with the inevitable dissolution of family unity without their focal point in the aging mother and her country home.
But however dull this may sound, the movie is not just a mundane look at family politics, accessible only to to those who have or covet expensive objects, wealth and property. This is a piece of art whose insights run deep. The progression of time in the film is not the usual plodding timeline laid out to herald new events and plot twists, it is almost a representation of the universal passage of time itself. One family splits into many, one object of value translates into another, meanings attached to them shift and transmogrify as they pass hands, and significant historical moments figures come and go. This ordinary upper middle class family thus becomes the embodiment of the fluidity of postmodern existence.
The privileged aspects that form the substance of the characters’ existence, whether these are the properties inherited by landed elite, the stylish symbolics and focus on trend shaping held by the cultural elite, or the finances of the business bigwigs dabbling in global markets, are somewhat alienating to the majority of us. I’d even go as far as to say that millions of cinemagoers escaping from their own serious problems may find this pontification somewhat self-indulgent and irrelevant. Nonetheless I am confident that everything painted on screen is created in the cause of art, and its significations for the various themes interwoven within the narrative, although not universally accessible, are carefully chosen and highly intelligent.
A film for thinkers out there, a slow burning, intricate portrayal of the complexities of contemporary family life, SUMMER HOURS is a thoroughly rewarding film if you are willing to brave its flaws. It’s detachment from the majority experience of everyday life means that it will be a joy to watch for some, but a painful chore for others.
THE MOVIE IS PLAYING ON VERY LIMITED RELEASE IN THE U.K. FROM FRIDAY 18th APRIL 2008!
