Summertime (La belle saison)
Director: Catherine Corsini
Talent: Cécile de France, Izïa, Noémie Lvovsky, Kévin Azaïs , Laetitia Dosch
Released: 15th July
Despite her open and bucolic surroundings, Delphine (Izïa) feels trapped due to the burden of keeping her sexuality a secret from her parochial farmer parents. A summer spent in Paris, however, offers her a chance at liberation when she runs into a group of passionate and emboldened second-wave French feminists, including school teacher Carole (de France). Drawn in part to the feminist dialogue and more so to Carole, Delphine begins to attend more group meetings, and the events that unfold over the course of the heady few months make returning to her life as it was impossible.
Corsini’s film is stylish and bracing, intermingling the burgeoning romance between Carole and Delphine (and its accompanying challenges) with the fight for reproductive rights in ’70s France, massively relevant topics for Irish viewers at this current juncture. However, the film more than anything is about love: Corsini manages to thread the complications of human relationships into the scenes of spirited political discussion without detracting from either. It is a feature that succeeds in engaging both the head and the heart, and does so with great elegance.
Words: Eva Short
