Summertime

Revisiting the theme of conflicted Sapphic passion she explored in Replay (2001), director Catherine Corsini and producer and life-partner Elisabeth Perez draw on their own experiences for this touching, if occasionally affected love story. Meeting in Paris in 1971, 20-something farm girl Delphine (Izïa Higelin) and Spanish teacher Carole (Cécile de France) connect through feminist politics before tumbling into bed, even though Carole (who is a decade older) is living with a man. However, while she is prepared to throw caution to the wind when the younger woman returns to Limousin to help her mother after her father has a stroke, Carole knows that the family's fate depends on the support of its highly conservative neighbours. Production designer Anna Falguères and cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie expertly capture the town-and-country contrasts, while De France and Higelin boldly commit to their challenging, if underwritten roles. But while this is smoothly done, Corsini never quite conveys the magnitude of the risks the women are taking in trying to live on their own terms.