Summer Hours

What a beautiful thought provoking film. It was sensitively handled and left an impact. Helene lives on an estate in rural France. It is a lovely country house and the terrain is wild and colorful. We aren’t quite sure of her relationship to the former owner, a famous painter. He is dead and has left all the magnificent furniture and valuable paintings. The elderly Eloise looks after Helene.

Helene’s three children come to visit. Her daughter, Adreienne lives in the United States. She is a designer. One son works in Peking and the other is an economist living in France. They seem to be a caring family fond of one another.

Helene must have had a premonition because she discusses her belongings with her children. She tells them how she wants things distributed.

Soon after she dies and the children come together for the funeral. They discuss the house and the valuable articles inside. They have no need for the lovely house or the artifacts. They had obviously meant a lot to Helene and I found it very understandable but sad that after her death everything was sold.

It does make you think about the value of material things and certainly the emotional value. Poor Eloise is left an expensive vase that probably had no meaning for her.

The daughter visits the museum where some of the splendid furniture is on display. It was emotional and I almost felt as if the furniture was abandoned and sent to a place where it doesn’t really belong. At the same time I realized that now many other people could appreciate this fine furniture.

The grandchildren come to the house for a final party before it is turned over to the new owners. A large crowd of young folk arrive on scooters and cars for the final party. They drink beer and dance. They have skateboards and swim in the pond. Nobody was disrespectful but it was so out of character to see all these young adults ‘whooping it up’ in this stately country house. It was such a contrast from the way Helene lived in the house. I couldn’t help but wonder what she would have thought of all that was happening in her quiet house.

The cinematography is beautiful. The film moves at a slow pace in keeping with the story. All the actors performed well. This is an excellent film well worth seeing. When French is spoken the sub titles are displayed. The relatives living in the States speak English.