Été 85 [Summer of 85] **** (2020, Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) – Movie Review

François Ozon’s 2020 film Été 85 [Summer of 85] is a gay romantic drama, inevitably recalling Call Me by Your Name, but this time with a very French spin. Ozon turns a somewhat novelettish bitter-sweet little story into something beautiful and haunting.

François Ozon’s Été 85 [Summer of 85] is a gay romantic drama, inevitably recalling Call Me by Your Name, but this time with a very French spin. Ozon turns a somewhat novelettish bitter-sweet little story into something beautiful and haunting. He takes us on a reflective, melancholic journey through joy to despair on on to hope, on a path lined with love, pain and dark humour, but above all with warm humanity and a spirit as sunny as the Summer of 85 French weather. A cheery ‘dancing on my grave’ film, that’s interesting.

Félix Lefebvre stars as the brooding French 16 years old teenager Alex/ Alexis, whose boat capsizes in a thunderstorm at a seaside resort in Normandy in the mid-1980s but he is rescued by the flamboyant and unstable 18 year old David (Benjamin Voisin), who lost his father a year ago and dreams of death.

David lives with and works for his rather dithery mother Madame Gorman (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), who soon embraces the boy and offers him a job in their store where David works. In six fairly idyllic weeks, a whirlwind friendship leads to romance, and David ends up as Alexis’s boyfriend. Though idyllic for the besotted Alex, in the heady throes of first love, it’s not quite the same for David. He doesn’t really know David at all. He is simply an alluring love object. David is a troubled boy. He may not seem it, certainly not to Alex, but he is very disturbed.

Summer of 85 is a beautiful one in Normandy, a classic perfect time and place, magically and nostalgically conjured up by Ozon. But warning signs of trouble ahead are the arrival of older English woman Kate (Philippine Velge), whom David gets interested in, and a drunken local boy, whom David also saves and also gets interested in.

Warning signs are also that François Ozon’s screenplay is loosely adapted from Dance on My Grave by Aidan Chambers. David makes Alexis promise very reluctantly that whoever does first will dance on the other’s grave. So Été 85 is a film about love and death then but with a message. Whatever happens, you’ve got to move on.

This is a lovely film, sharp and beady-eyed as well as emotionally poignant and moving. Ozon is on fire and lets it rip every which way, on the crest of a wave of a summer of love. It’s exquisitely acted too, all spot on, in a most economical roller-coaster ride, a whole summer of ecstatic love and joyous death in just 100 minutes. Lefebvre is particularly good, in a fearless, truthful, appealing performance, but Voisin shines lustily, while Tedeschi, plus Isabelle Nanty and Laurent Fernandez as Alex’s parents, and Melvil Poupaud as the teacher Monsieur Lefèvre all get space to score strongly.

The cast are Félix Lefebvre as Alexis Robin, Benjamin Voisin as David Gorman, Philippine Velge as Kate, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as David’s mother, Melvil Poupaud as Lefèvre, Isabelle Nanty as Alexis’s mother, Laurent Fernandez as Alexis’s father, Aurore Broutin as a teacher, Bruno Lochet as Bernard, Yoann Zimmer as Luc and Antoine Simoni as Chris.

Principal photography began in May 2019. It premiered in Lyon on 2 July 2020, was released in France on 14 July 2020, screened at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival on 13 September 2020, released in the UK on 23 October 2020, and released in the US on 18 June 2021.

It was to be called Été 84 (Summer of 84) but Robert Smith, the singer of The Cure, refused to grant Ozon permission to use his song ‘In Between Days’ because it was released in 1985. Ozon wrote to Smith asking to pay less to use the song and offering to change the title to Été 85.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Movie Review

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