Summertime (2015)

A young woman moves from the French countryside to Paris and begins a passionate love affair with a feminist leader in this drama set in 1970s France.

Director:

Catherine Corsini

Writers:

Catherine Corsini, Laurette Polmanss

Stars:

Cécile de France, Izïa Higelin, Noémie Lvovsky

3 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cécile de France	...	Carole (as Cécile De France)
Izïa Higelin	...	Delphine Benchiessa
Noémie Lvovsky	...	Monique Benchiessa- la mère de Delphine
Jean-Henri Compère	...	Maurice Benchiessa - le père de Delphine
Loulou Hanssen	...	Françoise
Kévin Azaïs	...	Antoine
Benjamin Bellecour	...	Manuel
Laetitia Dosch	...	Adeline
Sarah Suco	...	Fabienne
Calypso Valois	...	Charlotte
Natalie Beder	...	Marie-Laure (as Nathalie Beder)
Bruno Podalydès	...	Le professeur Chambard
Antonia Buresi	...	Geneviève
Julie Lesgages	...	Joëlle
Benjamin Baroche	...	Le type qui se fait mettre la main aux fesses

Storyline

There was little chance, in the year 1971, that Carole, a Paris Spanish teacher and feminist militant, would ever meet Delphine, the daughter of a couple of Limousin farmers. But they did meet and not only did they come across each other but they fell passionately in love as well. Unfortunately, Delphine's father fell victim to a stroke, and the young woman had no other choice but to go back home to help her mother run the family farm. Carole, who was so smitten by Delphine, couldn't stand the estrangement and decided to join her lover at the farm. But could feminism and lesbianism easily be transferred to the countryside and its standards of the time...?

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Plot Keywords:

lesbian | female rear nudity | female full frontal nudity | year 1971 | farmer | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Catherine Corsini stated that she named the two main characters Carole and Delphine after real life artists and feminists Carole Roussopoulos and Delphine Seyrig.

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Goofs

After a swim in the pond, the girls lay out to take some sun. As Carole lays naked on the blanket resting her head on Delphine, her arms are raised and we can see she does not have any underarm hair. As the girls start to kiss and caress Carole's armpit is exposed again but this time full of underarm hair.

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Connections

Referenced in Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo (2016)

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Soundtracks

Me and Bobby McGee
Written by Fred Foster (as Fred L Foster) / Kris Kristofferson
© Edition Combine Music Corp.
Authorised by EMI Music Publishing France
All rights reserved
Performed by Janis Joplin
(P) 1970 Sony Music Entertainment Inc
With the kind permission of Sony Music Entertainment France

User Reviews

Lyrical, but not quite real

I didn't much care for the first half of 'Summertime': a posse of beautiful, self-confident and middle-class young feminists assert their right to "to as they please" in the Paris of the 1970s. What is absent from the portrayal is any sense of the personal insecurity that cripples most of us; these sisters, it seems, can quite literally do anything for themselves. The film becomes more nuanced when it follows two of its protagonists (a lesbian couple) back to the farm in the country where one of them (Delphine) grew up, and whence she has now been summoned owing to the illness of her father. There's still some idealisation here: the family own their farm and live a simple peasant life. But the conflict between Delphine's familial and spatial sense of identity, and the new relationship she has forged in the city, is nicely portrayed, as is the guarded hostility of her mother and her local acquaintances to the choices she has made in her new life. Overall, it's not nearly as strong as 'Blue is the Warmest Colour', but it grew on me as I watched it.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [UK]

Country:

France Belgium

Language:

French Spanish

Release Date:

19 August 2015 (France)

Also Known As:

Summertime

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

EUR4,800,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$15,413, 24 July 2016

Gross USA:

$35,322

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,778,938

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chaz Productions, France 3 Cinéma, Artémis Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1