SUMMERTIME. (ALSO KNOWN AS 'LA BELLE SAISON') (2015) DIRECTED BY CATHERINE CORSINI. PRODUCED BY ELIZABETH PEREZ. MUSIC BY GRÉGOIRE HETZEL. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY JEANNE LAPOIRIE.
STARRING CÉCILE
DE FRANCE, IZIA HIGELIN AND NOÉMIE
LVOVSKY.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
I marked the last day of summer 2016 by
watching the appropriately-titled 'SUMMERTIME,' a French-language movie which has been described by CURVE magazine
as 'a beautiful, sensual and resonant film, made by women
for women.'
I
couldn't agree more, except for one thing. It's not just a
film for chicks. I imagine that guys, or les mecs as
they call them in the movie, will have a lot of appreciation for the
many scenes involving female nudity and lesbian sex. Ever wondered
what lesbians do in bed? You may be somewhat enlightened
after watching SUMMERTIME...!
Yes, it's the
story of a lesbian romance, but it's not all about boobies and
naughty girlie bits, though that kind of thing certainly features a lot.
Delphine is a country girl in early 1970s France who seems to have
known for a long time that she's a lesbian.
When her
lover, a local woman, informs Delphine that she's getting married,
Delphine ups-sticks and re-locates to Paris, the glamorous capital
city. Here she meets Carole, a beautiful straight woman who's an
activist for Womens' Rights. Delphine falls head over heels in love with
Carole, because Carole is the kind of woman who's easy to love. I fell a little bit in love with her myself while watching this...!
Carole is
passionate and enthusiastic about what she believes in. She has an
infectious lust for life, fantastic long blondey-brown hair and a
great set of dazzling-white gnashers. She's always dancing or running or laughing in
that sexy throwing-your-head-right-back-and-tossing-your-hair way
that gorgeous Continental women in films have, especially French
chicks.
She also has
a boyfriend called Manuel, who's gutted when he discovers that his
apparently straight girlfriend has a female lover. He's even more
gutted when Carole leaves Paris to join Delphine on her family's
farm. Delphine's Dad has had a stroke and Delphine's had to leg it
home to help her Mum, who's not able to run things on her own.
The two
lovers have a ball on the farm. Long days of hazy summer sunshine are
spent working out in the fields together with Delphine's Mum Monique,
who takes to Carole straightaway. Things change, however, when the
strait-laced Monique discovers the naughty pair stark naked in bed
together. I must say, it took her long enough. They'd been at it for
ages under her very roof before she copped on...!
Anyway,
Monique blames Carole for 'corrupting' Delphine,
when in fact it was Delphine who first introduced Carole to the
delights of lesbian sex. Delphine, genuinely horrified that her
'secret' is out,
realises that she has to make a choice. Go back to Paris with
Delphine, and live openly as a gay woman with her head held high, or stay on the farm and
attend to her family responsibilities.
Presumably if
she chooses the latter, she'd have to suppress her sexuality for the
sake of her mother, who wants her to settle down and marry a nice
local boy called Antoine. Hobson's choice, eh...?
This is
just such a gorgeous, beautifully-shot film. The farm and the
surrounding woodlands in the summer sunshine are almost heavenly to
behold. I love all the 'Seventies long hair, flared jeans and nifty
leather jackets too. These really all look great when the women wearing 'em are
running in the film, which they do a lot, with their long hippy hair
streaming out behind them like the sails of the Santa
Maria!
The
scenes of lesbian sex and nudity are rather beautiful too. Carole has
very nice pubes and a nice stiff pair of nipples you could hang your
raincoat on. There's a lot of interesting feminist stuff in the film
too about the
ready availability of contraception and abortion, which would really make you
think given what Irish women are still struggling for a whopping four
decades after the era in which SUMMERTIME is set.
The movie is a great example of how love ultimately makes you miserable, haha. Maybe I'm being cynical here but is there any brand of love that doesn't result sooner or later in some kind of anguish or suffering? If there's is, I've yet to come across it, by Jove...!
The movie is a great example of how love ultimately makes you miserable, haha. Maybe I'm being cynical here but is there any brand of love that doesn't result sooner or later in some kind of anguish or suffering? If there's is, I've yet to come across it, by Jove...!
This
easy-on-the-eye film will be out on DVD on September 12th
2016, courtesy of the nice folks at CURZON: ARTIFICIAL
EYE. Included
with your film will be an interview with the director
and
producer, both female, and some deleted scenes too. I'm so, so glad
that I ended my summer with this marvellous piece of film-making. Do
yourselves a favour and start your autumn with it...
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA
HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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