MovieChat Forums > L'heure d'été (2009) Discussion > Lots of potential, none of it used... (s...

Lots of potential, none of it used... (some spoilers)

posted 15 years ago by Sorcerer-NL
7 replies | jump to latest

I really really liked the first half of this movie. It had a really great feel. Also, directing/acting is sublime throughout the movie.

However, after the first half, when the children were arguing about the inheritance, it got boring. After that the movie metamorphosed into some kind of antiques roadshow (like someone else here mentioned), mixed with some arguing, some blowing, a police station visit (about the blowing), a visit to the notary, some whining about inheritance tax and gifting to a museum...

Don't get me wrong. The movie contained some great and funny scenes (like the old lady receiving the expensive vase, being oblivious to it's real value). However there was no plot in this movie. It felt like just a random collection of scenes... nothing really happened. No character development, no story development, nothing else really interesting. Even the ending, with a scene that had loads of potential, was empty. Maybe this was the director/writer's intention, but I sure didn't like it.

Well, maybe if you're an art lover you could like this, but if not, just skip this movie and watch "Dialogue avec mon jardinier" instead. This too is a movie which only contains a limited plot/story, but it is so rich and the feel is so good and refined it's really really worth it.

[–] Shipep15201 14 years ago

funny scenes?

Can you name one?

[–] Tamooshka72 14 years ago

You cannot approach a film like this as though it's . . . well, American, with a character set-up-->conflict-->climax-->resolution. The point of the film is a lesson in how sentimentality cannot mitigate that meaningful things/places/relationships are made impermanent by globalization. The mother, the house, her children, are dispersed by circumstance, and all the beautiful things the mother has surrounded her family with, which in another era would've remained consolidated and preciously shared, are disposed of to people to whom they mean nothing. Thems the breaks, but it's still very moving; that it's so naturalistic only adds to the movie's resonance. There doesn't have to be character development--the characters are fully realized from the first moment of the film. We merely slowly walk alongside them through a brief, uniquely meaningful period of their lives. Maybe you have to have been through something like this in your own life to be able to deeply appreciate the film . . .

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Revolutionow 14 years ago

That's a near perfect summation of what this film is.

there is a very loud amusement park right in front of my present lodgings

[–] timmy_501 14 years ago

Except for the anti-American part of course.

I've got some rules,too, and rule number one is, don't tease the panther

[–] timmy_501 14 years ago

The mother, the house, her children, are dispersed by circumstance, and all the beautiful things the mother has surrounded her family with, which in another era would've remained consolidated and preciously shared, are disposed of to people to whom they mean nothing.

And it's done neatly so that that the worth of these items is established enough that there's a reason for someone else to want them but we also find out that they won't be appreciated by the museum goers-mostly they won't be appreciated at all but in some cases they'll be appreciated for altogether different reasons.

I've got some rules,too, and rule number one is, don't tease the panther

[–] henrimaine 9 years ago

However there was no plot in this movie ... nothing really happened. No character development, no story development.

This movie was about things: the house, the paintings, the vases, etc. It was not about people and "characters". So there was no need for character development. It was the trajectory of things that was important. People were of secondary importance in this movie.