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Olivier Assayas' contemplative family drama handles lofty ideas about art and culture with elegance and lightness. Read critic reviews
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Movie Info
When elderly matriarch Hélène Berthier (Édith Scob) discovers that her health is declining, she contacts her three adult children about contending with her valuable art collection after her passing. As the family gathers, local son Frédéric (Charles Berling) is on hand, while his jet-setting siblings, Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) and Jérémie (Jérémie Renier), fly in from abroad. Together, they try to agree on what to do with their mother's collection, as they also grapple with her mortality.
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Genre: Drama
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Original Language: French (France)
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Director: Olivier Assayas
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Writer: Olivier Assayas
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Release Date (Theaters): limited
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $1.6M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: IFC Films
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Production Co: MK2 Productions
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for Summer Hours
Critic Reviews for Summer Hours
Audience Reviews for Summer Hours
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A touching portrait of a family coming to grips with the remnants of childhood after the passing of the matriarch. A difficult situation that many of us have had the misfortunate of having to endure in regular life.
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Even with a couple of plot lines that end up in blind alleys, "Summer Hours" is a poignant and touching look at the passage of time in a single family as it moves further apart, with jumps in time from sequence to sequence. It starts innocently enough with the 75th birthday celebration for Helene(Edith Scob) where she tells her oldest, Frederic(Charles Berling, who is excellent), an economist and writer, what she would like to happen to her house and belongings once she dies, forgetting what happened to King Lear when he tried something similar. It's actually more important than just a simple family matter, as she lives in a veritable museum that the Musee D'Orsay covets due to her uncle being a famous painter in his day. Frederic is stuck with the job because he is the only one still living in France while his siblings Adrienne(Juliette Binoche) and Jeremie(Jeremie Renier) live and work abroad. Frederic's intention is to keep the home where they all grew up in the family. To the movie's credit, they act like a real family as the siblings joke about old memories shared between them. All of whom are entering the stage in their lives where they are now the oldest in their families, to paraphrase "The Sopranos." In the end, "Summer Hours," in its own simple way, reminds us that all things come to an end, with all that is left is memories and a badly tended grave.
walter m Super Reviewer -
A kindly matriarch leaves her palatial country estate to her three grown children who, after her death, debate whether or not to sell and what is lost if they do. The concept for the film is strong, and by and large, the performances are subtle, nuanced, and strong. However, the film is simply too slow. At about the beginning of the second act, we've already figured out the film's theme and have a very good idea about how it's going to end, and for the last hour, we're waiting for the film to catch up to its audience.
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A typical French film: heavy on feelings, and relationships, with no seeming action or purpose. Well done, good insight into people trying to lead a good life, showing life takes control of us and goes on in spite of ourselves. But unbearably slow...ZZZzzzzzzzzzz.
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