31 August 2016

SUMMERTIME. (2015) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.




SUMMERTIME. (ALSO KNOWN AS 'LA BELLE SAISON') (2015) DIRECTED BY CATHERINE CORSINI. PRODUCED BY ELIZABETH PEREZ. MUSIC BY GRÉGOIRE HETZEL. CINEMATOGRAPHY BY JEANNE LAPOIRIE.
STARRING CÉCILE DE FRANCE, IZIA HIGELIN AND NOÉMIE LVOVSKY.
REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I marked the last day of summer 2016 by watching the appropriately-titled 'SUMMERTIME,' a French-language movie which has been described by CURVE magazine as 'a beautiful, sensual and resonant film, made by women for women.'

I couldn't agree more, except for one thing. It's not just a film for chicks. I imagine that guys, or les mecs as they call them in the movie, will have a lot of appreciation for the many scenes involving female nudity and lesbian sex. Ever wondered what lesbians do in bed? You may be somewhat enlightened after watching SUMMERTIME...!

Yes, it's the story of a lesbian romance, but it's not all about boobies and naughty girlie bits, though that kind of thing certainly features a lot. Delphine is a country girl in early 1970s France who seems to have known for a long time that she's a lesbian.

When her lover, a local woman, informs Delphine that she's getting married, Delphine ups-sticks and re-locates to Paris, the glamorous capital city. Here she meets Carole, a beautiful straight woman who's an activist for Womens' Rights. Delphine falls head over heels in love with Carole, because Carole is the kind of woman who's easy to love. I fell a little bit in love with her myself while watching this...!

Carole is passionate and enthusiastic about what she believes in. She has an infectious lust for life, fantastic long blondey-brown hair and a great set of dazzling-white gnashers. She's always dancing or running or laughing in that sexy throwing-your-head-right-back-and-tossing-your-hair way that gorgeous Continental women in films have, especially French chicks.

She also has a boyfriend called Manuel, who's gutted when he discovers that his apparently straight girlfriend has a female lover. He's even more gutted when Carole leaves Paris to join Delphine on her family's farm. Delphine's Dad has had a stroke and Delphine's had to leg it home to help her Mum, who's not able to run things on her own.

The two lovers have a ball on the farm. Long days of hazy summer sunshine are spent working out in the fields together with Delphine's Mum Monique, who takes to Carole straightaway. Things change, however, when the strait-laced Monique discovers the naughty pair stark naked in bed together. I must say, it took her long enough. They'd been at it for ages under her very roof before she copped on...!

Anyway, Monique blames Carole for 'corrupting' Delphine, when in fact it was Delphine who first introduced Carole to the delights of lesbian sex. Delphine, genuinely horrified that her 'secret' is out, realises that she has to make a choice. Go back to Paris with Delphine, and live openly as a gay woman with her head held high, or stay on the farm and attend to her family responsibilities.

Presumably if she chooses the latter, she'd have to suppress her sexuality for the sake of her mother, who wants her to settle down and marry a nice local boy called Antoine. Hobson's choice, eh...?

This is just such a gorgeous, beautifully-shot film. The farm and the surrounding woodlands in the summer sunshine are almost heavenly to behold. I love all the 'Seventies long hair, flared jeans and nifty leather jackets too. These really all look great when the women wearing 'em are running in the film, which they do a lot, with their long hippy hair streaming out behind them like the sails of the Santa Maria!

The scenes of lesbian sex and nudity are rather beautiful too. Carole has very nice pubes and a nice stiff pair of nipples you could hang your raincoat on. There's a lot of interesting feminist stuff in the film too about the ready availability of contraception and abortion, which would really make you think given what Irish women are still struggling for a whopping four decades after the era in which SUMMERTIME is set.

The movie is a great example of how love ultimately makes you miserable, haha. Maybe I'm being cynical here but is there any brand of love that doesn't result sooner or later in some kind of anguish or suffering? If there's is, I've yet to come across it, by Jove...!  

This easy-on-the-eye film will be out on DVD on September 12th 2016, courtesy of the nice folks at CURZON: ARTIFICIAL EYE. Included with your film will be an interview with the director
and producer, both female, and some deleted scenes too. I'm so, so glad that I ended my summer with this marvellous piece of film-making. Do yourselves a favour and start your autumn with it...


AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.

Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO

 You can contact Sandra at:


http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com







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