Ete 85 (2020)

Directed by: François Ozon | 100 minutes | drama | Actors: Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Melvil Poupaud, Isabelle Nanty, Laurent Fernandez, Aurore Broutin, Bruno Lochet, Yoann Zimmer, Antoine Simoni, Patrick Zimmermann, Samuel Brafman-Moutier

François Ozon’s films often excel in erotic light-heartedness, and a film about the summer romance of two smooth teenagers naturally adds to this, despite everything that usually follows the ‘love’ (dixit Renate Dorrestein).

Alexis (Lefebvre) and David (Voisin) fall in love, and the two young men have a chemistry that bursts from the screen, although the theme of the film is not immediately brought up. After all, ‘Eté 85’ has a dark undertone: that of death, a subject rarely associated with teenage summers.

Eighteen-year-old David and two years younger Alexis make a pact that whoever dies first may dance on the grave of the other, a carefree teenage promise like so many, because it is not meant to be fulfilled. By that point, you’re already attached to the two, including David’s borderline neurotic mother (Bruni Tedeschi), who invariably calls the boyish Alexis “my bunny.”

It never gets tough, the credit of a director who knows how to arouse emotions without sending the viewer home with a stone in the stomach. Ozon has this in common with contemporary Pedro Almodóvar. “That’s how the end started,” Alexis says to the viewer halfway through. Even a voice-over works, even if the classic love story isn’t really there. The settlement with the English Kate (Velge) as a sounding board for Alexis can even be called artificial.

Human adolescence is also actually too fleeting for a love classic. But isn’t everyone’s teenage love the greatest? And darkness without heaviness also suits teenagers in ‘eighties’. The typical eighties atmosphere of ‘Eté 85’ is well captured, a black and white universe in bright colours. Anyone who grew up in that period understands the paradox; If you don’t, you should definitely see this movie.