➤ SUMMER OF 85, from p.64
onscreen.
“Summer of 85” begins with Alex
(Félix Lefebvre) getting arrested
for dancing on the gravesite of
his ex-boyfriend David (Benjamin
Voisin). In a voice-over, he tells us
that they swore an oath: “Whoever
dies fi rst, the other swears to
dance on his grave.” The fi lm then
returns to their meeting six weeks
earlier.
Alex meets David when his boat
overturns while sailing off Normandy’s
coast. David manages to
rescue him, and they begin hanging
out together, despite their differences.
David comes from a Jewish
family who owns a shop in
town, while Alex’s family is poorer.
But Alex starts working at that
shop, and the two teenagers become
lovers, spending all their free
time together for a brief period until
David moves on to Kate (Philippine
Velge).
Ozon goes by the old adage
“show, don’t tell” here. The love
story between Alex and David is a
matter of bare torsos and lazy days
in the sun. The cinematography
sometimes darkens to adjust to the
weather, but the blissed-out mood
persists. However, “Summer of ‘85”
keeps telling the spectator that
it’s haunted by death, but never
quite convinces — even when Alex
dons drag to take a look at David’s
corpse in the morgue.
British writer Aidan Chambers
fi rst came up with the idea for
“Dance on My Grave,” the YA novel
upon which “Summer of 85” is
based, while working as a teacher
in 1966. At the time, he read a
news story about a 16-year-old boy
arrested for desecrating a grave.
Following a few failed attempts,
he fi nally began writing the published
version in 1979 and fi nished
in 1982.
At that time, the two teenage
boys having sex would still have
been illegal in the UK, where the
age of consent for gay men was 21,
but Chambers says that the book
deliberately avoids labeling their
sexuality or treating gayness as a
problem. “Summer of 85” continues
that approach. No one uses
the word “gay” or seems to think
in terms of sexual orientation,
even though Alex is threatened by
David’s apparent bisexuality and
adults talk about their relationship
gingerly at best, with hostility
at worst. As in “Call Me By Your
Name,” set in Europe around the
same time with a very similar story,
AIDS is never mentioned, but the
way this story is defi ned by death
suggests a faint allusion to it.
While a voice-over like the
one running through “Summer
of 85” is a common technique
in French fi lms, it symbolizes
something else. Through David’s
death, Alex becomes motivated
to put his thoughts down on paper.
Towards the end, the voiceover
hints that it’s coming from
an older, wiser version of Alex.
He says “Please don’t think my
story ends here. Maybe it’s just
beginning.”
The opening scene clues us in
that Alex and David’s relationship
will not last. “Summer of
85” hints at a much grimmer idea
than it actually develops: David
had to die for Alex to become a
writer. It’s not really a love story,
just Alex’s origin story as an artist.
But what it shows doesn’t really
match the mood it tells us it
is expressing.
Even in the more melancholy fi -
nal 40 minutes, which take place
after David’s passing, Ozon’s complete
avoidance of grit takes us
away from the tragedy the fi lm
describes. His images never stop
looking like they’re ready for Instagram.
The careful avoidance of onscreen
sex doesn’t prevent “Summer
of 85” from succumbing to
“the pornography of taste,” as
critic and fi lmmaker Kevin B. Lee
described the fl aws of Abdellatif
Kechiche’s male-gaze lesbian epic
“Blue Is the Warmest Color.” Alex’s
exertions to Rod Stewart’s “Sailing”
are a pale clone of the scene of
Denis Lavant dancing to Corona’s
“Rhythm of the Night” that closes
Claire Denis’ “Beau travail.”
For all its emphasis on teenage
love, “Summer of 85” never
shows many signs it has a beating
heart.
SUMMER OF 85 | Directed by
François Ozon | Music Box Films
| In French with English subtitles
| Opens June 18th at the Angelika
Film Center, Village East, and Film
at Lincoln Center
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