Mark Reviews Movies: SUMMER OF 85

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 17, 2021

Alexis (Félix Lefebvre) is fascinated by death. Make that Death, with a capital D, as he clarifies. It all started with learning about the mummies of ancient Egypt, but this past summer, he was finally able to see a corpse in person. As Alexis—or Alex, as he likes to be called after the summer recounted here—sits in a police station, waxing morbid in a voice-over narration while he's being processed for some crime, at the start of Summer of 85, he narrates that this story will be about death, the corpse, and the person whom that body once was. If that's not what we want to hear, Alex turns directly to the camera and speaks, "This is not the story for you."

This film, written and directed by François Ozon, begins with such a level of severity and mystery. Ozon, though, is often a juggler of tones, and he prepares us for that immediately when Alex's opening narration and final warning have finished. The scene cuts from the cold, stark police station to a bright, sunny beach scene, as the cheery, new wave guitar-plucking of a familiar song by the Cure blasts on the soundtrack.

It's the complete antithesis to the dreariness of the setting and tone of the first scene of the film. If not for the impact of the juxtaposition, we might go through this story, completely unaware that death and grief and possibly guilt—of both the moral and legal varieties—await us at the end.

The effect is substantial, though, but just as considerable is how invested Ozon, adapting Aidan Chambers' 1982 novel Dance on My Grave, is in the romance of this place and this time, as well as a very literal kind of romance between two teenage boys. Knowing this will somehow end tragically, without knowing how or why or for whom the tragedy will actually unfold, makes it bittersweet, yes. It also enriches this tale and these characters with a sense of the ephemeral. The romance will end, either before or because of death, so what, in the larger picture, does it actually mean?

The story, set in a small seaside town in France, is simple. The 16-year-old Alexis, celebrating the completion of another year of school, borrows a sailing boat from a friend to spend an afternoon relaxing in the sun at sea. A storm approaches from the distance, and in his rush to set the sails again, Alexis overturns the boat. He's rescued by David (Benjamin Voisin), a tall and strapping young man who has just turned 18. Alex's narration informs us that David is the future corpse, so Ozon lets us know that's not the real mystery of this story.

David brings Alexis, whom he constantly calls Alex (hence, we gather, the reason he calls himself by that name in the present of the story's framing device), to his home, where David's mother (played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) prepares him—and uncomfortably undresses him for—a bath. While Alexis' clothes dry, David suggests they spend a day on the town. Eventually, he offers Alexis a job at the store, which used to be operated by his late father, he runs with his mother.

There's little surprise when this quick and quickly deep friendship becomes something more. The present-day Alex, waiting around for an unspecified court case that somehow pertains to David's death, is telling this story to a caseworker (played by Aurore Broutin) via a written statement, which his encouraging literature teacher (played by Melvil Poupaud) says is coming close to becoming a novel. Such is the level of detail in Alex's memories of those weeks, which he has since counted to the days and minutes and seconds, with David.

Knowing that the intercutting of the present-day mystery and the flashbacks are sufficient enough for the trappings of any plot here, Ozon simply spends those flashback scenes developing the feeling of young, heedless love. It's effective, whether Alex is intentionally ambiguous, such as the camera lingering on the door when the two go to David's bedroom for the first time, or intensely specific, such as the way he describes wanting to be with David every moment—and, more than that, wanting him physically connected in every one of those moments together.

A particularly stunning scene has the two dancing in a club, before David puts headphones over Alexi's head and hands him a portable tape deck. While the entire club dances to some electronic music, Alexis can only hear Rod Stewart's folksy ballad "Sailing," but the rhythm of his private moment matches that of David's dancing. It's his memory, intimate and personal about David, but David, who's physically right there and in the same step, isn't quite part of it.

That concept becomes the central theme and question of Ozon's film, which isn't just about romantic love, right here and right now, or the eventual complications, involving visiting girl from England named Kate (Philippine Velge) and a heart-shattering admission that goes beyond sex, or David's eventual death. It's mostly about whether or not that love is equal and equally felt, and if it's not, whether or not that means it was and remains "real" for both of them or either of them.

Summer of 85, then, is really about grief, which exists because of the unanswered questions that death inevitably leaves, and trying to find meaning in the loss of both love and life. Some questions can't be answered, and while Alexi may not know it, maybe Alex can learn that lesson.

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