Le passager de l'été (2006) User Reviews

Beautifully photographed

[pnay75-2 · 9 June 2008]

May contain spoilers I agree with most of Writers reign's comments, but I think he is mistaken when writing Joseph is Angele's lover too. He repeatedly refuses her advances, which is important to define Joseph's character as an honest man:he is not interested by a girl who sleeps with any and all men. He sure is first attracted physically by Monique, but abandons her when he discovers he loves her daughter and is reciprocated. When he leaves said daughter, it is because he knows she deserves better than a man with no future ( as Monique tells him when he quits the farm), and he certainly does not know she is pregnant. The director chose unusual landscapes, which are beautifully photographed. By the way, Jean-Paul Moncorgé, who plays Paulo, the young farmhand with a lame leg, is the director's son, and thence Jean Gabin's grandson

To Be A Farmer's (Toy) Boy

[writers_reign · 8/10 · 26 June 2006]

It's difficult to know how many average moviegoers will be aware that first-time writer-director Florence Moncorge is the daughter of Jean Gabin, one of the all-time greatest actors in French Cinema. Actually it's academic and I for one am happy to judge the film on its own terms and let me say right off that I enjoyed it immensely. I saw it immediately after La Doublure and though they couldn't be more different both are vastly entertaining. Gregori Derangere could be forgiven for experiencing a sense of deja vu whilst shooting this film for it has much in common with L'Equipier where he also played an 'outsider' in a small, close-knit community; The Teammate was also set in the past and utilised a frame narrator - and there's even a lighthouse nearby though it plays no part in the story. Joseph (Derangere) is an illiterate and itinerant laborer who fetches up one summer circa 1950 at the farm of Monique (Catherine Frot) who takes him on as an all-round farm hand. If we can perhaps anticipate that sooner or later Monique and Joseph will be putting in some sack-time this does nothing to spoil the lyricism of harsh lives lived in a harsh landscape and Moncorge captures superbly the day-to-day life on the farm helped immeasurably by actors who are not afraid to get their hands dirty, Frot especially is a revelation in wellies and shapeless shift pitching hay up onto a wagon, milking cows and scrubbing both vegetables and a kitchen with an old porcelain sink whilst Derangere weighs in by walking behind a shire horse holding a plough on unyielding ground. It isn't, however, a two-hander by any means; Frot has a daughter Jeanne (Laura Smet) who, in her capacity as the local schoolteacher helps Joseph to master reading and writing and Francois Berleand is also on hand as the maire who fancies Monique and barely tolerates Joseph and, rounding off a stellar cast is Mathilde Seigner as the local pharmacist. Given that Joseph also puts in some sack-time with Jeanne you could say that it all ends in tears but this remains a fine and admirable movie that I'll certainly see again.

Joseph's age...?

[ruthiespoon · 15 September 2006]

I also saw this film in France, in French. I got the impression that the narrator at the beginning was Paulo, and that it was him who was only 17 when the story took place. I guess Joseph was just a farmworker and had never had any formal education and so that's why he was illiterate, I didn't understand the bit about his father dying, but I guess that makes sense, I just assumed he was a transient worker and had no need for education really. I also took a guess that the guy returning in the car 40 years later with the exercise book was the son of Jeanne..... I didn't realise this at the time, it took me a while to figure out the appropriate ages! I loved the film too, despite struggling to understand all of the action!

Awesome, poignant, unforgettable BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY rip-off

[searchanddestroy-1 · 14 June 2023]

Directed by the very daughter of Jean Gabin, this little movie is absolutely fantastic, gripping, even if it may look like a TV movie for saturday evenings. But you have riveting TV dramas, especially from France. Nothing is like emotion, unlike humor which may be clumsy, boring, predictable ; here the storyline keeps you glued to this simple and realistic story. Acting is excellent so is the casting. Gregory Derangère is a underrated actor. This plot taking place in the countryside village after WW2 is a common scheme often evoked in the French film - big screen and TV - industries. An unfortunately underrated film. And of course the influence of Clint Eastwood's BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY is more than obvious. Not a copycat.