Like most of the works offered by Denis Côté, A summer like this will obviously not be to everyone’s taste. The most unique of Quebec filmmakers this time tackles themes related to sexuality, rarely treated in Quebec cinema with as much freedom of spirit as delicacy.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
The 14the feature film from the director of Curling is also its longest. During the 137 minutes that the projection lasts, this slower rhythm is however never binding. As if this way of taking your time to beat time had imposed itself to breathe life into a story which, in the end, is not really one…
At first, there are only close-up faces. The director of the event comes to explain to the people she is addressing the why and how of this strange workshop, in which three young women leading an “out of the ordinary” sex life, in the eyes of society, have voluntarily agreed to participate. They are then explained the regulations to which they will still have to submit during the 26 days that will last an exercise that is more a matter of study than therapy. They are also introduced to the two professionals (Anne Ratte-Polle and Samir Guesmi) who will observe them during their stay, in complete discretion.
The goal is not so much to treat – they are not “patients” – as to explore the confines of sexual desire, which, in the case of these women, can sometimes take extreme forms. “It’s a journey, not a treatment,” they are told straight away.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY MAISON 4:3.
Scene fromA summer like thisby Denis Cote
They are three, therefore. We gradually learn where these women come from, interpreted by Larissa Corriveau, Aude Mathieu and Laure Giappiconi, and what led them to this particular program, without however ever falling into psychologism. This is where the strength of the story lies. The spectator and the heroines are always at the same level of understanding, in a kind of bubble where everyday reality no longer really has a hold.
Without judgment or provocation
We talk a lot about sex, of course. Denis Côté has nevertheless managed the feat of frankly illustrating the practices of these “hypersexual” women, without ever having recourse to explicit images. There is, on the contrary, an infinite delicacy in the gaze, even in the most frontal sequences. In this regard, the approach taken by the filmmaker is impressive. Let’s remember in particular this very powerful scene with Léonie (Larissa Corriveau), a shibari adept, while several minutes are devoted to the preparation of a session taking on all the appearances of a ritual. An assembly of cables orchestrated with a clever mix of softness and precision is shown here in all its complexity, like the composition of a painting, without any voyeuristic effect.
Moral judgment is completely absent from the filmmaker’s approach, as is any desire for provocation. The cohabitation of five individuals for 26 days in this isolated place in the Laurentians will lead to discussions and more intense moments in terms of personal relationships, perhaps even certain reflections for some of them. But there is no demonstration of anything. Upon arrival, we will have spent a moment of life with them, with him too, like a moment suspended in space, out of time, with the satisfaction of having lived an experience, no matter what will happen to it. afterwards. The quality of the acting of the five main characters is to be underlined, just as much as a singular pictorial vision, specific to the cinema of Denis Côté.
Shortlisted for the Golden Bear at the Berlin festival earlier this year, where a first version of this text was published, A summer like this is now showing.
Drama
A summer like this
Denis Cote
With Larissa Corriveau, Laure Giappiconi, Aude Mathieu
2:17 a.m.
Indoors