People are voting emotionally.

How sad is this?

A Masterpiece!

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

All of the reviews that I read raved about the great beauty of this film. I'm not sure which drugs they were on. By far, of all the French films I have ever seen, and I have seen many, this was the most tedious, uninviting piece of dullard dross I have ever seen.Firstly, the woman this entire pointless venture revolves around, does nil, nothing to endear us to her in the first 20 minutes or so of the film. She's a self-absorbed, ungrateful, miserable and unappealing 'aged' woman who decides that she'll wallow in her misery when there's no one around to keep her entertained. (A 'supposed' illicit love story, which may have put some spark into this crap never really revealed itself into more than a couple of sentences.) Yawn.So when the film moves on after her death, I had high hopes. Perhaps the thing was going to show some real character... perhaps the children she has left behind will actually show some personality, some vivacity, some drama, some individuality, ANYTHING!!!!!! Nope, dull, boring, sanitised people with dull, boring sanitised lives all meandering around sobbing over sticks of furniture and ugly art and furniture that appeals as much as cheap tinker market junk; visiting it in the museum after it saves them 'death taxes' and bemoaning the loss of 'their' house, now sold.To top this carnage of anything even remotely interesting off, the house sold, these same morons allow the grandchildren, now in their bored, abberant, dope-smoking teens, the most boring type of teens available to mankind, to have a 'last' party in a house which no longer belongs to them, so that their little rave party may leave some kind of parting message, possibly just hundreds and hundreds of discarded beer cans, condoms and rubbish for some poor new owner to clean up. Wow. And all with a parting shot of some of the worst overacting by a teen I would never remember as an actor in a million years.Biggest waste or money, time and my brain power in my life. Nothing here touched me in the slightest. The music was terrible, when they bothered, the characters so sanitised of anything that might make them personable that I am almost witless with boredom by this stage and the only thing which might have given this dross some interest, the beautiful exterior of the old house and gardens, we ended up seeing for about 10 seconds.Don't waste your time unless you have trouble sleeping.

This sumptuously photographed, leisurely film about different kinds of family legacy is intelligent and thought-provoking. The film deals with several generations and their attitudes towards the the nature of art, of business and of life itself; in its own way it asks several age-old questions--What does our life mean? At our death, what do we leave behind? How does our idea of culture continue when globalization undermines a sense of local tradition? Loaded with convincing performers, taking its time to examine siblings in conflict, and humane in approach, this is the kind of film that sadly seldom is made in our own country--this week, folks are flocking to The Avengers, a film essentially made for fifteen year old boys who like to see epic versions of violent video games--any other week it's much the same; I suppose these films fill the corporate coffers, but they offer any real insight into our lives? I think Summer Hours does just that.

I love Juliette Binoche's acting, but she can't save a film from its self-destructive implosion. French viewers and critics (non-French Franco-philes) too often use the crutch of contrasting negatively American films with French films. French films have depth and great acting ad nauseam. I have seen many, many French films over the years and even the best (I read reviews before viewing them) are usually just above average, same as America or British films. Ironically, one of Binoche's best performances is in the American film, Dan in Real Life. She is also quite good in the adventure film The Horseman on the Roof, a very, very good film. Anyway, Summer Hours has a Bergman feel, but none of his story telling ability and very little of the performances he elicits from actors and actresses. Not a winning film.

What really caught my attention in this movie is the phrase spoken by the family's maid (Heloise) after the death of Helen (the matriarch Family) "What would I do with a work of art?" It seems that this sentence is intentional and has scope for tinkering with the head of the spectator; "What to do with a work of art?" Imagine: If Frederic Chopin heaved kept until nowadays all his compositions, just for his own pleasure, just for his family pleasure and just for his friends pleasure ... Do you imagine? Mutatis mutandis a work of art, be a mobile, a painting or a sculpture can not be kept "for my eyes only" and those should be shown for all the world see ... And one more question: - Can "the classic" be put side to side with "the modern"?Indeed, in several scenes of that movie, there is always the "modern" counterpointing to the "classic", for example: in the kitchen of the "centennial maison" there is a refrigerator; in the paths that lead to the "maison" no more "coaches" are seen, but modern cars; the characters indulge themselves with wine glasses, just as their ancestors did. As for cinematography, they remembered me several paintings by Renoir, extracting all its bucolic landscape ... Juliette Binoche - no surprise - masterfully composed his character: modern woman (just as Hélène) who practically lives for his work and "running" for several countries ... La France (toujours La France...) gives us this wonderful movie to be tasted "doucement" as a "Gran Crú Classée" deserves ... On a scale of 0 to 10, classify the film score of 9.