A nineteenth film that looks like a first work. With Summer 85 , director François Ozon adapts a story close to his heart, that of The Cuckoo Dance , a novel by the English writer Aidan Chambers. Summer 1985, on the Normandy coast. During a sea trip, Alexis (played by Félix Lefebvre), 16, capsizes and is rescued by David (played by Benjamin Voisin), a charismatic young man who cohabits with an extravagant and possessive mother in the extreme. Alexis has just met the friend of his dreams.
" François Ozon has fun with the codes of the teen-movie of the eighties " says Étienne Sorin in the columns of Figaro . But despite the many strong points of the film, " his formalistic inclination takes over in the second half of the film. "Between the back and forth in time and the secondary characters" not really exciting who become more laborious and artificial ", Summer 85 does not manage to be perfect. " Despite this escalation, the exercise of style is not entirely in vain, " concludes Étienne Sorin.
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An opinion shared by Sophie Benamon for Première who feels a “ feeling of deja-vu. We also have the feeling that the director does not really know how to extricate himself from his voice over ”. However, the atmosphere of the film is one of the strong points of the work, " François Ozon masters suspense like nobody ". The two actors Félix Lefebvre and Benjamin Voisin, for their part, are “ magnetic, fiery and complex ”.
This “ formidable ” duo appeals to the Journal du Dimanche , especially when it is accompanied by a “ pretty procession of secondary characters ”. " At the same time serious and a bit crazy, transgressive but not too much ", Summer 85 is a " first sentimental beating " which combines wonderfully " irony and tragedy ". For Jérémy Piette de Liberation , the skill and softness of François Ozon's framing " manages to bring out the lightness and electricity of the moments experienced ". The director's work makes it possible “ to insist on what this inner fire contains macabre ” for La Voix du Nord and Christophe Caron.
Read also: François Ozon goes back in time with Summer 85 , in "official selection" in Cannes
Summer 85 does not manage to rally everyone to its cause. If Catherine Balle du Parisien sees " a great film " in it, Olivier De Bruyn de Marianne , judges that it " does not equal " his predecessors. François Ozon " never dwells, does not hide his emotion ", estimates for his part Jérôme Garcin in L'Obs . Véronique Cauhapé du Monde regrets a " nostalgia without weighting and a writing dispossessed of humor that makes all the salt of the novel " while the film has a " meticulous reconstruction of the time and a tender observation of the characters " .