Summer of 85

horror movie

This endearing love-story is pictured from the point of view of 16 year old naive and impressionable Alex, who head over heals falls in love with the more streetwise and impetuous David. Ozon very convincingly shows the kind of summer-love that many of us are all too familiar with: at the start looking like it will last forever, until somewhere along the line one of the two backs out, leaving the other broken-hearted. Ozon creates a wonderful atmosphere, with a sun-drenched seaside village as decor, beautiful cinematography, and a meticulously rendered retro-setting to revive the eighties. All actors are excellent, even the smaller parts of both mothers, but Felix Lefebvre (Alex) and Benjamin Voisin (David) really steal the show with the natural and easy way in which they play their demanding parts, especially Lefebvre who has to go through a rollercoaster of emotions, he at several times moved me to tears. It surprised me a bit that Ozon, the director of so many complex and at times controversial movies, chose this "little" story as a subject. In spite of the tragedy at the centre of the movie, it's rather one-dimensional (I recently saw "Jonas" by Christophe Charrier, with a more or less comparable story, but much more multilayered). And since Ozon is also renowned for some rather explicit movies, this one is remarkably restrained, especially in view of the premise being the sexual awakening of a young teen. It would be interesting to know his considerations on this. But all in all: an excellent, sensitive and endearing movie.

Toward the end of the movie, Alexis asks the teacher a question about David, which is subtitled: "Did he seduce you, too?" The teacher replies something like: "Yes, but he was my student, and I was his teacher." This is confusing to an English speaker, because the teacher seems at once to be admitting to and denying a physical relationship with David. The confusion is owing to the subtitles. In French the verb Alexis uses is séduire, which can mean seduce. But it can also mean.attract, charm, allure, beguile, etc. From the teacher's answer, it's clear that the subtitle should use one of these words, and not seduce, because the point is that while David charmed the teacher, and perhaps tried actively to seduce him, he did not succeed.

Both are good and alike and recall everyone memories when young.