François Ozon is one of the new auteurs of French cinema. True to the spirit of his predecessors, especially Truffaut, he also deals with adolescence in some of his films. "Été 85", one of his latest works, is also the one in which teenagers play the most important role. It is a film full of nostalgia, that perfectly complements what seems to be a teen romance like no other.
In 1985, two teenagers, Alexis and Dave meet. The former's ships has capsized and so he needs to be rescued. The brave David comes and saves him. Not only from drowning, but also from lowliness. For, Alexis does not love girls. His preference lies more to men. This may sound completely normal today, but for the society of the time, it was something unacceptable. And so, the two heroes hide their love from everyone but an Englishwoman , Katy, who has come in France as an au pair. Unfortunately, luck is not on their side. David dies in a twist of faith. And now, Alexis has to decide whether he will fulfill the promise he gave his friend whilst he was alive: to dance on his grave.
Ozon's film is as much about gay love as it is about how the latter transcends death. Alexis and Dave truly love each other, and this shows. With "Été 85", Ozon essentially deconstructs the feeling of famous 80's films, and puts them in a different spectrum.
In France during that time, homosexuality was a taboo topic. Because of that, the cinema didn't dare explore it. Instead, the spectators were offered stories of heterosexual, middle class teenagers searching for love in the opposite sex. For this reason, when David puts the headphones of a Walkman in Alexis's ears, this is not only a tribute to cult teenage film "La Boum" (1980), of which Ozon is an admirer, but also an interesting revision of the film, since for the first time, it becomes the story of people marginalised at the time of its release. Such a scene serves to show that am age now beloved also had a lot of faults, with the homosexuals of the generation that grew up back then having the chance to see their own stories on screen only forty years later.
The quite bizarre fixation of the characters on death also serves as a contradiction of the French 80's teen film tradition, in which the topic was either nonexistent, or treated more as something only implied and almost never shown on screen. By having the hero see his dead lover's corpse, Ozon takes advantage not only of the shock factor of the scene, but also of the fact that such a scene would have been deemed outrageous by the audience of the day. Only actors of the new generation could successfully pull out such a sequence, in which death is perceived not as much as a taboo, but rather a natural fact of life.
Not only does the film examine the 80's, it also embraces the decade. The soundtrack is fully composed of hits of the time, with The Cure, Raf and many more artists transporting the viewers to this neon-lit, glamorous age. It is as if the director took an episode of the chart show "Top 50" and put it in the film. Marc Toesca would have been proud.
The film is truly no commercial feature. It is an auteur film, one that dares to address sensitive topics with honesty, with a plot that sometimes feels more like material for philosophical discussion than the story of a film. It is a movie that takes a beloved decade and its film culture and turns it upside down. Nevertheless, "Été 85" succeeds in its goal: to show the other side of an allegedly innocent and fun time, while also embracing its carelessness. It's the two aspects of an age in one film. In the summer of 85, both of them were made clear.
In 1985, two teenagers, Alexis and Dave meet. The former's ships has capsized and so he needs to be rescued. The brave David comes and saves him. Not only from drowning, but also from lowliness. For, Alexis does not love girls. His preference lies more to men. This may sound completely normal today, but for the society of the time, it was something unacceptable. And so, the two heroes hide their love from everyone but an Englishwoman , Katy, who has come in France as an au pair. Unfortunately, luck is not on their side. David dies in a twist of faith. And now, Alexis has to decide whether he will fulfill the promise he gave his friend whilst he was alive: to dance on his grave.
Ozon's film is as much about gay love as it is about how the latter transcends death. Alexis and Dave truly love each other, and this shows. With "Été 85", Ozon essentially deconstructs the feeling of famous 80's films, and puts them in a different spectrum.
In France during that time, homosexuality was a taboo topic. Because of that, the cinema didn't dare explore it. Instead, the spectators were offered stories of heterosexual, middle class teenagers searching for love in the opposite sex. For this reason, when David puts the headphones of a Walkman in Alexis's ears, this is not only a tribute to cult teenage film "La Boum" (1980), of which Ozon is an admirer, but also an interesting revision of the film, since for the first time, it becomes the story of people marginalised at the time of its release. Such a scene serves to show that am age now beloved also had a lot of faults, with the homosexuals of the generation that grew up back then having the chance to see their own stories on screen only forty years later.
The quite bizarre fixation of the characters on death also serves as a contradiction of the French 80's teen film tradition, in which the topic was either nonexistent, or treated more as something only implied and almost never shown on screen. By having the hero see his dead lover's corpse, Ozon takes advantage not only of the shock factor of the scene, but also of the fact that such a scene would have been deemed outrageous by the audience of the day. Only actors of the new generation could successfully pull out such a sequence, in which death is perceived not as much as a taboo, but rather a natural fact of life.
Not only does the film examine the 80's, it also embraces the decade. The soundtrack is fully composed of hits of the time, with The Cure, Raf and many more artists transporting the viewers to this neon-lit, glamorous age. It is as if the director took an episode of the chart show "Top 50" and put it in the film. Marc Toesca would have been proud.
The film is truly no commercial feature. It is an auteur film, one that dares to address sensitive topics with honesty, with a plot that sometimes feels more like material for philosophical discussion than the story of a film. It is a movie that takes a beloved decade and its film culture and turns it upside down. Nevertheless, "Été 85" succeeds in its goal: to show the other side of an allegedly innocent and fun time, while also embracing its carelessness. It's the two aspects of an age in one film. In the summer of 85, both of them were made clear.