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 Sébastien and Mickaël
Guérin admits to wanting to tell a story about teenagers who still ‘knock on each other’s doors’ and don’t use mobile phones or sit around playing computer games. He wrote the film out of a recollection from his own teenage years, growing up in a small French provincial town. However, he also wanted to tell an honest story about teenagers, who were not as grown up as those in the city, teenagers who are ‘not all surfing the net’. Teenagers also who were living in a small town, somewhat a step back from modernity, sheltered from the dangers of reality and basking in the golden light of a summer’s day.
.jpg "Image") Interesting also is the decision to work with non-actors on the film, something that adds a certain beauty to the film’s atmosphere. To mention atmosphere once is to belittle the true wonder of the cinematography, at times the luminosity of the summer sun leaps out from the screen. Intimate close ups of Sébastien throughout the film also assist in pulling the audience closer into his world, which ultimately is what adds to the tragedy of his best friend, Mickaël’s death. Here is a world that is so well constructed that every frame seems to emote, every word seems loaded with a deep felt understanding of what it means to love and then to lose that love, even if love remains undefined. For at the centre of the film’s narrative is the love Sébastien feels for Mickaël.
A Summer’s Day manages to do what no other film exploring adolescent sexuality has ever done, to allow the unspoken complexities rise to the surface gently and without heightened passion. This is no better exemplified than in the scene where Sébastien and the Mayor’s son, Francis, go paintballing. Francis is older than Sébastien and it is suggested that he is gay, something which charges his scenes with Sébastien throughout the film. When they tussle after Francis wins the paintballing there is a dangerous chemistry between them, Francis goes to kiss Sébastien but decides against it, the two boys are left in extreme close up, noses touching, both wanting the other to make a move. The film speaks honestly about the unspoken emotions that we tackle through our teenage years, it examines how we come to love and ultimately home much we admit that that love may change our lives.
.jpg "Image") This is a film that so beautifully explores the innocence of youth, framed by the beauty of a hot summer and vast landscapes that impress upon those who live in them both opportunity and oppression. In the lead character, Sébastien, the audience are treated to a sensitive portrayal of a boy struggling to become a man, struggling to impress his father and also to carve out a future for himself. Moreover, it is through his connection with Mickaël’s mother and sister that he manages to mourn the loss of his friend and escape his father’s garage and the increased investigations into Mickaël’s death. Escape then perhaps motivates the film’s narrative, escape from the claustrophobia of the town but also escape from the unknown emotions that Sébastien cannot control. A Summer’s Day manages to harness all of this and bring out a truly enjoyable film that will have you engrossed throughout and basking in its
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