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Christopher

6Apr12

The ending is simply perfect.

"Summer Hours" is a movie about life just like life is. Such as we see in "L´eau froide", Olivier Assayas offer us great and naturalistic interpretations/characters placed in simple stories without almost any action. As realistic as it is possible. 3/5 stars

matteo

5Feb12

One of Assayas' finest works. Pierre Bourdieu would have loved it. This should be watched in conjunction with Nicole Holofcener's Please Give. They both deal with material culture, status, social capital, and the changing lifestyles of the upper middle class.

Erik Gregersen

27Dec11

Great story about three siblings having to break up their mother's estate. I'm surprised that this topic has seldom been done before, even though we will all have to do it (and it will be done to our possessions after we go). If I was French, this film would be very worrying, since France and the mother's estate are things whose day has passed, and now the best bits should be put in a museum for tourists to gawp at.

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Sadhaka

31Oct11

Masterful depiction of life and death and the material repercussions. Naturalistic dialogue, acting and unobtrusive camerawork. Like life, simple and apparently pointless. Therein lies it's excellence.

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Brian O'blivion

17Sep11

Absolute bore!

odilonvert

29Aug11

Ok... good but, something about it was incomplete. Not sure what, maybe there were moments of tension that started to surface but then were not more thoroughly explored?... Something made me feel "meh" about it but I still can't give it less than 4 stars... maybe 3.75?...

FailedImitator

12Aug11

Assayas did good.

Kristen Livera

12Aug11

We're never shown the life that the art inspired and likewise the stillborn film is doomed shelf life in museum quarters without touching ground- a vase without flowers

pivic

20Jun11

This is quite the solemn experience, much like Antonioni’s “L’Avventura”. A family gathers around the grand-mère of the family in the country, the keeper of artwork by a great, late artist. The direction is sublime in the extreme; where my Hollywood sense of watching films is painfully blown-up, I felt that this film told it like it should be, in a way.

marcorenton

17May11

Not a bad movie, but it seemed to be a little unfocused to me.

4peace

17May11

Yep. Had a bad case of the try-to-hard. However the art direction almost makes up for it. Out frenched itself.
marcorenton

24May11

Out frenched itself, certainly a very nice way to typify this movie. :)

Joks

10Feb11

Good film but Assayas lets the characters off the hook a little by having them all work in different countries. I understand the reason for doing this, and it allows us to consider the more subjective concept of value from a number of alternate perspectives, but the relativist view of selling out vs preservation is a bitter pill to swallow. Kudos for not dividing values completely across generational lines

Jonathan Cribbs

14Apr11

It's more than that though. The movie's also about the dilution of family and nationality in the modern age. A wealthy family like that could very easily have children working in different countries. And Binoche's character says, "The house doesn't mean anything to me anymore. France either." Meanwhile, you've got this French agency trying to preserve the country's artistic history. The movie also focuses at how those forces are at odds. The oldest son–the economist–is the bridge between the two, which is why he's the most conflicted.

Beneezy

10Jan11

I didn't know what to do after seeing Summer Hours. I was literally in tears at the end of this film. I felt like I was 'caged' just like the Majorelle desk. Rare and raw!

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Sunshine & Clouds

7Jan11

I burst into tears when Eloise came home with the flowers looking for a vase when they were collecting items from the house. Definitely a defining moment in this film.

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chanandre

26Feb12

Why oh why did they sell the family house...?always money money money...now Eloise can't take her kids there. A shame. for me the sad part was seeing the furniture on the museum. that stung.

Justin Kane

4Jan11

Captures loss and family dynamics quite well. Summer Hours also subtly reminds me of some of Rohmer's films.

Alysson Oliveira

22Nov10

If Checkov made a movie I suspect it would be something very likely this one.

Daniel Martins

8Nov10

perfeito!

Roberto Russo

28Sep10

You guys have said it all. Sublte and visually perfect. Interest in art is decaying from generation to generation, values are always changing. In a bad way, unfortunately.

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Yashoda

2Sep10

So glad I finally watched this! Starts out as a film about family but transforms into a film about art and death.

sandwiches

31Aug10

Expected something beyond mediocre from this supposed "film critic" and "die-hard cinephile." Old woman talking about her impending death. *cue sappy harp music*

Hazel Hills

3Jul10

Absolutely beautiful.

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Erik Villasenor

2Jul10

speaks wonders about contemporary living and globalization, along with many deep emotions. truely touching imagery, great stuff.

4peace

29Jun10

The best art direction in 10,000 years. Bad news was a three year old could have picked apart the social commentary and simple plot points.

Matthew

24May10

I hated this movie at first but really got into it by the end. It surprised me a lot. I have never had an opinion of a movie change so dramatically over the duration of the film

Robert

10May10

Beautifully shot, well cast film about a French family wondering what to do with all their museum quality furniture when the matriarch dies. **SPOILER ALERT** (they end up giving it mostly to a museum due to tax liability issues) (no, seriously, really heartbreaking scene talking with the family's estate tax lawyer about the pros and cons of allocating their ginormous estate) **End Spoiler**