Summer of ’85 is about memory, hope, dreams and fears that arrive and vanish throughout our lives like the changing seasons. It’s about those uncomfortable moments, as teenagers, when we realise the seasons of our lives change whether we want them to or not. Summer of ’85 is now showing in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema.
Benjamin Disraeli once said, “The magic of our first love is our ignorance that it can never end”. Anyone looking back on their first intense feelings of love and the shield of invulnerability we placed around them could hardly disagree. Our first love is often laced with envy, lust, jealousy and joy, and as any world-weary adult will tell you, those first feelings rarely find longevity due to the sharp reality that life and love move quickly when you’re a teenager.
For those of us who identify as LGBTQ+, those first feelings are also wrapped in our emerging sexuality and the fear of being different. The emotions attached are even more jagged and sharp as we attempt to navigate love, coming out and a fear of parental and social rejection. These themes find a powerful and beautiful voice in François Ozon’s Summer of ’85.
Based on the 1982 novel “Dance on My Grave” by Aidan Chambers, Ozon transports the British-set story to Northern France, where 16-year-old Alex (Félix Lefebvre) sits in the no-man’s-land between the end of school and the start of adult life. Alex’s decision is simple: should he remain in school or join his father in the dockyards? But this decision is also wrapped in the hormonal energy of adolescence and the burning need to break free from his family life and find himself.
While meditating on his future during a solo sea trip on his friend’s small boat, Alex capsizes in a sudden, freak storm. All seems lost as the waves swallow the boat until an enigmatic and charming 18-year-old named David (Benjamin Voisin) comes to his rescue. David takes the wet and cold Alex home for fresh clothes and a warm bath. But for Alex, his rescuer is far more than just a hero; he is a door to feelings he has tried to keep silent, and what starts as an intense friendship soon develops into something far more intoxicating and close.
You may be wondering if Summer of ’85 is just another gay coming-of-age love story, but anyone familiar with François Ozon will know that nothing is simple in his cinematic universe. Like Christophe Charrier’s much underrated I Am Jonas, Ozon opens his film with a scene that sets the film’s direction as Alex sits in handcuffs and awaits his trial. From these first scenes, Summer of ’85 charts a slightly different course from the classic coming-of-age love story, as Ozon delves into the pain of separation, the unbridled joy of first love, and the uncontrollable anger of adolescent grief through a captivating performance by Félix Lefebvre.
Félix Lefebvre stars in SUMMER OF ’85
Every moment we spend with Alex and David is imbued with the vibrant colours of summer, as the secretive nature of their intense affair is brought to life through stolen kisses and risky backroom fumbles. The secrecy of this connection reflects the experience of many gay and lesbian teens as they enter their first relationships and search for companionship in a world where holding someone’s hand can prove risky.
However, the intensity and heat of Alex and David’s relationship are also held in Alex’s memory as our sole narrator. Knowing how the film opens, you also know that much of what we see must be a rose-tinted perspective of a boy in love for the first time, the colours hiding a much darker truth. Here, elements of Summer of 85 resemble Jerzy Skolimowski’s Deep End (1970), as an uneasy feeling permeates Ozon’s coming-of-age narrative.
With its sun-drenched tale of first love, Summer of ’85 is bound to draw comparisons to Call Me By Your Name. However, it could not be more different in style and delivery. Ozon’s prism of the teenage mind reflects the many images we create, nurture, embellish, and even attempt to ignore during adolescence. Summer of ’85 is about memory, hope, dreams and fears that arrive and vanish throughout our lives like the changing seasons. It’s about those uncomfortable moments, as teenagers, when we realise the seasons of our lives change whether we want them to or not.
Director: François Ozon
Cast: Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Melvil Poupaud
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