| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010 9:06 am |
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Entertainment 
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'Summer Hours' makes you re-think values, possessions A universal family experience is beautifully probed in "Summer Hours," a new one from the eclectic French filmmaker Olivier Assayas.That family experience? Deciding what to do with what's left behind. At a country home in rural France, an estate must be dealt with in the aftermath of a death. Three adult siblings, none of whom have lived at the place in years, have differing opinions about that. Their mother (the luminous Edith Scob) tended the place as a kind of shrine to her uncle, a well-known artist. The artist's things are still all around the house, and so are the valuable art objects he collected. The oldest sibling, Frederic (Charles Berling), feels the house ought to stay in the family, the history of the place maintained intact. The middle child, Adrienne (Juliette Binoche), lives in New York, the younger brother Jeremie (Jeremie Renier) in Asia. Their notions of the house's future might differ from their brother's. You could imagine this to be a dry premise for an entire feature film, or at least vaguely unpleasant. But Assayas (whose last one was the peculiar "Boarding Gate") and his fine cast use the material as a way of examining the different reasons people have for holding on to things -- or letting things go. Assayas is scrupulous about letting the audience decide how we feel about this trio. Everybody's got their good side and bad side. Jeremie might be a sellout for taking a job that involves manufacturing cheap athletic shoes in China, but Adrienne comes across as self-righteous when she calls him on it. It doesn't hurt that a great deal of the movie is set at the country house, a gently declining but still quite beautiful place. We admire this home and the handsome objects that the great artist collected -- a vase, a wardrobe, a couple of valuable paintings by Corot. But Assayas is interested in more than enjoying pretty things. By the end of the movie we're also wondering about the value of things like that. Is a vase valuable because it's a work of art, or because it holds flowers really well? And just when you think the movie might be backing the wisdom of letting go of old things, Assayas includes a final sequence, involving Frederic's teenage children (a sequence that nearly echoes a great party scene in an early Assayas film, "Cold Water"), that makes you re-think your conclusions yet again. |
- A revolutionary 747
- Fire breaks out at Everett car dealer
- Everett rethinks boutique wineries
- A tidy lawn could be law in Lynnwood
- Snohomish County's bargain housing won't last
- Boeing's 747-8 takes off after weather delay
- Plan for I-5 closures this week
- A new bowling alley for Monroe?
- Lake Stevens man homeless after fire
- I-5 bridge joint may give you a jolt, but it isn't damaged
- Vote on school levies by Tuesday
(9) - A tidy lawn could be law in Lynnwood (8)
- Everett rethinks boutique wineries (6)
- Toyota has powerful D.C. friends (5)
- Everett police officers cleared in 2008 shooting death (5)
- 1949 travel aid shows how few places blacks were welcome in Washington (4)
- I-5 bridge joint may give you a jolt, but it isn't damaged (3)
- Ex-Boeing engineer jailed for espionage (2)
- Cigarette causes life-threatening burns (2)
- ORCA a whale of an improvement for Community Transit (2)
- Edmonds educator, famous announcer dies
- Mill Creek to appeal ruling on annexation
- Through the air, with the greatest of ease
- E-W thriving under new coach
- The path to citizenship
- EUUC puts on ‘Pants & Shoes’
- Wolfpack wins the ‘Battle'
- Lynnwood’s annexation plans OK’d
- Arlington's Cascade Valley Hospital celebrates expansion, national award and 100 years of service
- Business Licences Feb. 2010
- Technology tips for launching your own business
- Business Events Feb. 2010
- Tech Talk: No excuse today for going without a Web site
- State already raising fees and rates that restrict business growth
- Some legislators again targeting people’s initiative petition rights
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