Summer Hours (2008)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This review was originally published at Image. - Olivier Assayas\u2019 beautiful new movie\u00a0Summer Hours\u00a0begins as three successful, well-educated siblings\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/05\/summer-hours-2008\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summer Hours (2008)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This review was originally published at Image. - Olivier Assayas\u2019 beautiful new movie\u00a0Summer Hours\u00a0begins as three successful, well-educated siblings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/05\/summer-hours-2008\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Looking Closer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-11T19:51:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-10-06T22:29:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey Overstreet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey Overstreet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/05\/summer-hours-2008\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/05\/summer-hours-2008\/\",\"name\":\"Summer Hours (2008)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-11T19:51:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-06T22:29:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e\"},\"description\":\"This review was originally published at Image. - Olivier Assayas\u2019 beautiful new movie\u00a0Summer Hours\u00a0begins as three successful, well-educated siblings\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/05\/summer-hours-2008\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/05\/summer-hours-2008\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/05\/summer-hours-2008\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Summer Hours (2008)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/\",\"name\":\"Looking Closer\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey Overstreet\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a7727373cd5b470d66842ecf5cc007?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a7727373cd5b470d66842ecf5cc007?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Jeffrey Overstreet\"},\"description\":\"Visit Looking Closer for Jeffrey Overstreet's latest writing on art, faith, and film. 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{"id":80197,"date":"2010-05-11T13:51:51","date_gmt":"2010-05-11T19:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?p=80197"},"modified":"2012-10-06T16:29:24","modified_gmt":"2012-10-06T22:29:24","slug":"summer-hours-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2010\/05\/summer-hours-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Hours (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This review was originally published at Image<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

Olivier Assayas\u2019 beautiful new movie\u00a0Summer Hours<\/em>\u00a0begins as three successful, well-educated siblings reunite in the backyard of the rural French house where they grew up. They\u2019re celebrating their mother\u2019s birthday with a leisurely party on her beautiful property.<\/p>\n

And yet their mother H\u00e9l\u00e8ne (Edith Scob)\u2014whose family history is full of art-making and art acquisition\u2014is jumpy and distracted. She\u2019s nearing the end of her life, and everyone is dancing around a discomforting question: What will happen to this house full of history, and to all of the valuable works of art within it, when the matriarch passes on?<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t long before the inevitable occurs, and the siblings are left to sort it out. One\u2014Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric (Charles Berling), the eldest\u2014wants to keep the house and its famous paintings for their history and personal significance. Others\u2014Adrienne (Juliette Binoche) and J\u00e9r\u00e9mie (J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Renier)\u2014don\u2019t plan to spend time there, and their immediate needs could be alleviated by the sale of the house.<\/p>\n

The film resonates with emotions as authentic as the details. (Assayas\u2019 own mother died as he was developing the project.) But the movie is more than a family drama. It asks us to consider what happens to art and history in a culture that is increasingly uninterested in what lasts, and that seems content with more frivolous, temporal, and portable pleasures?<\/p>\n

Summer Hours<\/em>\u00a0was crafted as an entry in a series for the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay. (Hou Hsiao-hsien\u2019sFlight of the Red Balloon<\/em>, one of my favorite films of 2008, was the first in that series.) But even though the French Ministry of Culture gave up on that project, Assayas\u2019 film takes us through the museum\u2019s bright, hallowed halls so that we can consider whether certain pieces of furniture really belong \u201cin captivity.\u201d As quoted by A.O. Scott, Assayas meant to consider \u201chow art comes from real life and ends up in a museum, as if in a zoo or a mausoleum, and how ultimately that changes the nature of art.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film asks us to ponder what makes the objects in our lives \u201cmeaningful.\u201d The Berthiers\u2019 house is alive with museum-worthy treasures: paintings by Camille Corot, a desk by Louis Majorelle, an exquisite silver tray textured like a leaf. But in one incidental moment, as Frederic opens up a \u201cvaluable\u201d Italian armoire, we watch him withdraw a cheap plastic airplane toy, and his expression reveals that this item carries personal significance for him, whereas the famous furniture in which it was stashed does not.<\/p>\n

When they surrender H\u00e9l\u00e8ne\u2019s extraordinary desk to the museum, it feels like they\u2019re imprisoning a Bird of Paradise behind glass in a zoo.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s final scene may seem to some a dismaying conclusion\u2014chaos conquering order, classics being crushed by \u201cprogress.\u201d The next generation is given the run of the estate for a weekend. They bring along a tribe of young revelers, and the place comes alive with clamor and chaos.<\/p>\n

But for some viewers it will seem an exhilarating beginning\u2014a multicultural future in which new possibilities are informed and enhanced by echoes of the past. During the revels, one young woman pauses and looks at the scene, awake to the beauty of the place because she once saw it in a memorable work of art. It\u2019s a remarkable, poignant moment.<\/p>\n

While Assayas\u2019 conclusion seems to acknowledge that this pastoral style of French storytelling is as antique as any of the characters\u2019 possessions, he films his subjects with warmth and affection. The grief of the family\u2019s loss is eased by the grace of light and natural beauty caught in the camera of Eric Gautier (who also filmed\u00a0Into the Wild<\/em>).<\/p>\n

But there is an invigorating energy breaking through in that final scene, as he carries us forward to join the revelers. It feels as if cinema itself is hurtling into a future full of bright possibilities.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"