For André Téchiné and Patrice Chéreau, who have specialized in probing/expansive family melodramas, Summer Hours would be a trifle. For Olivier Assayas, it's almost a masterpiece.

Explores life in movement and the true value of material things. Beautiful.

Sensitive, pastoral, and light as air; very moving without resorting to sentimentality. The generational conflict is understated, striking refreshing notes of realism and subtlety. On the surface this is a pretty simple look at the emotional value of material things, but it presents varied perspectives and attitudes, not necessarily condemning any of them.

A beautiful film. The sheer warmth of it all is enough to make it captivating - the fondness the siblings have for each other and their mother, and their shared memories of growing up. But it touches on a number of emotions and themes - the shared regret of moving on and becoming more distant to family, the uncertainty of the future, the meanings people imbue on objects, etc. etc. It feels bittersweet, but ends on a surprisingly sunny and moving note.

Costume dep.: Anais Romand and Jorgen Doering

A slow-moving and thoughtful film with several moments of quiet drama. It subtly examines what happens to the things (and the people) that get left behind after a person's death, the power of memory and nostalgia, and the small conflicts and compromises that make up a family unit. Full of loss and poignancy, but with the ultimately hopeful message that life goes on.

Understated but very moving.

Summer Hours is a French film about how three adult siblings deal with the loss of their mother and the distribution of the things she left behind. An American film probably would focus on the siblings squabbling over their mother's estate. This isn't the case here. The bond between the siblings is real and deep. They don't quarrel. Rather, they talk - a lot - and strive to reach consensus. It's all very French, restrained, meditative, and thoroughly grown-up, and that's what I like about it.

Despite the complex presentation of varied attitudes, I think the heart of the movie is that art's primarily value is its human value. Just look at the film's coda, a lively tribute to the youth who who bring a new selection of attitudes, some of whom will no doubt become artists themselves, whose vitality imbues art and objects with meaning. At least, I hope that was the intent. It's not entirely clear what Assayas is getting at, but it's a beautiful and intriguing work nonetheless.

A sad family film about generations and differencies. The most interesting was the path of objects which had a long family history and how they end up to the museum vitrine. But the same time story was fractured in episodes and entirety was pretty cold and distant. There was not much of emotions, even siblings did not fight for any of memory objects. Each got what they wanted. The end of the story.

"The last thing I expected from the mad genius behind Boarding Gate is a Chekhovian chamber drama whose mantra could be essentially reduced to: posterity cares." - Akiva Gottlieb

A bittersweet and sober tale about What We Leave Behind. I guess I'm still a tad too young to truly identify with the themes on an emotional level, but I still enjoyed the quiet sadness, small regrets, and inescapable forward momentum in the lives of the realistically portrayed characters.

this is a film demonstrating that transitions are hard for the dramatic. big fucking deal.

Obviously Juliette Binoche is freaking amazing. The movie, though, left such an impression on me. Really able to convey the feel of nostalgia and remembered innocence. I choked up, despite the fact the film isn't necessarily sad, even.

Lacks any sort of appeal for me. Sort of a French post-Ozu pile of meh.

A sedate and talky change of pace for Assayas, not really my cup of tea, but somewhat interesting in it's subtle thematic similarities to his other recent films. He certainly deserves credit for being one of the only filmmakers interested in, let alone to examine, global capitalist society. However, detached from the context of chilly technocratic thriller a la Demonlover or Boarding Gate, the results feel a bit docile and bourgeois. Some nice, lyrical moments filmed by Eric Gautier though.

the party at the end made me extremely uncomfortable and i'm not sure why.

Art vs. Commerce! Youth vs. Experience! Nostalgia vs. House Payments! Who will triumph in these emotionally crushing age-old human conflicts?

I never found Summer Hours completely engrossing, but the cinematography is beautiful and the acting accomplished.

An interesting look at memories of a life lived, and how they are bound up in objects and places. But, as the fluid camerawork reflects, life does not stand still and we really get a feel for how the meaning drains from these things. Unsentimental and thought-provoking.

Hope in the face of unstoppable transience.

What a beautiful film. Assayas captures here the complicated push and pull that results from families living increasingly distanced from one another. Using the death of the family matriarch as the key plot point, the film offers a patient, contemplative, and intelligent look at the difficult transition this family faces, as well as offering a perceptive comment on the transient nature of modern society. This one gets under the skin, and it has one of my favorite conclusions in recent memory.

An ode to sentimental familial cherishment that doesn't indulge in beleaguering saccharinity but instead focuses on the deconstruction of thoughtful ruminations to reveal the beating hearts beneath the most unmoving expressions, Summer Hours quietly erupts in a feat of emotional profundity. As with the demonstrably innovative Boarding Gate, Assayas asserts himself one of the most aesthetically attentive contemporary filmmakers.

Serious-minded and somber, yet very warm and somewhat optimistic. In all the quiet sadness and painful acknowledgement, there's unstilted comedy and a genuine benignity here... Very watchful, very current. Great stuff.

"...this may lack depth, but its observations on human transience are deeply moving."

rhis is one of the most boring films I ever saw, maybe a antique collector might enjoy it...

13 nisan 09, yeni ruya, 16:00. 28. ist. film festivali & kendini izleten, diyalog temelli ve yer yer ic burkan sicak bir film. zamanla degisen ailevi degerler..

A poignant family drama that tackles the subject of memories, and how they are preserved in the material world. The death of their mother forces the children, all grown up and spread around the world, to sell all her belongings and, as a result, watch as their childhood memories slowly fade away. Assayas studies the themes with precision and subtlety, the result being one of the best French films of the new millennium.

A powerful understated look at the heartaches of loss and moving on in a familial context. Detailed and thoughtful, this intelligent film has a lot of heart and depth to it.

2009

A deeply moving portrayal of the temporality of everything around us, and all the joy and pain that comes with it.

A gentle French film that demonstrates that the most piercing, affecting drama sometimes emerges when the volume is turned down. The script by Assayas renders no judgment on the conflicts in the film. It simply is this way, and the characters move through it with a certain resignation of spirit, a sense that their curiosity and adventure is eternally tempered by a need for pragmatism. The attentive direction by Assayas almost seems to live with them, accompanying rather than observing.