Denis Côté's That Kind of Summer is now showing exclusively on MUBI in most countries—including the United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, Mexico, and India—starting December 1, 2022, in the series Luminaries.
A few sparks made me create this story. One of them is that I read a fascinating book about nymphomania by Carol Groneman, a New York-based historian. That's when the project really took off. I felt like writing a script that looked kindly on these complex characters, that didn't pass judgment or give easy answers. Something a bit twisted that wouldn't be an “issue film” with a message or a thesis. As a man, I was interested in a private world that didn't much belong to me. I had to slowly navigate it and appropriate it. Of course it was risky, but I figured that despite the mood of the era we currently live in, there's still nothing wrong with being interested in The Other and in characters I would get to know over the course of the writing.
I surrounded myself with female perspectives to get the ball rolling. My creative team was largely female at all stages of production. I know the film is considerate, doesn't look down on its characters, and doesn't provide any easy or ready-made solutions.
When writing, at first I had decided it would be a film without shouting, crises, active therapy, and revolts. I didn't want people to be able to put a finger on the real problems, and didn't want big narrative shocks. I wanted the audience to live or get lost with the girls over these 26 somewhat abstract days, halfway between vacation and confinement. We watch the lives of these people who apparently have problems. We stick to that and play with a few red herrings. I'm not thumbing my nose at science, at medicine or psychiatry. I'm following my characters. We spend 26 days with them with no conclusions, no assessments. We open doors. We don't close them.
I couldn't imagine my story with “those who know” on the one side, and “those who suffer” on the other. The end of the film even seems to beg the question, “What was the point of all this?” Who's helping whom, and how can medicine deal with humans who are so beautiful in all their complexity? When you take a closer look, the premise isn't even plausible. I highly doubt two universities would combine their efforts to lock up or observe three women for a month like that. Probably even less so with a man in the house. It's just an excuse. I don't care about the social plausibility of my films. No artist needs a realistic framework, or one that's been researched down to the last dot to write about human beings, their desires, dreams, ambitions.
The actresses were wonderful. Anne Ratte Polle even learned French for the film. Nudity and intimacy was never cause for concern during the shoot. I don't always treat people with kid gloves when I direct, and we shoot rather quickly. But the level of respect found on this very mature set helped us a lot. The human materials we were working with were explosive enough and the film belongs to its characters completely. The camerawork isn't showy and isn't concerned with making postcard-perfect summertime images or lingering on our beautiful house. Everything was focused on the characters. I hope I managed to arrive at a kind of discretion, even though the story itself carries its share of ambiguities.