Summer Things

2002 French-British-Italian romantic comedy-drama film

Summer Things

French theatrical release poster

French| Embrassez qui vous voudrez
Directed by| Michel Blanc
Written by| Michel Blanc
Based on| Summer Things
by Joseph Connolly
Produced by| Yves Marmion
Starring|

* Charlotte Rampling
* Jacques Dutronc
* Carole Bouquet
* Michel Blanc
* Karin Viard
* Gaspard Ulliel

Cinematography| Sean Bobbitt
Edited by| Maryline Monthieux
Music by| Mark Russell

Production
companies

Mercury Film Productions
Dan Films
Alia Film
France 2 Cinéma

Distributed by|

*     * UGC Fox Distribution (France)
* UGC Films (United Kingdom)

Release dates

* 9 October 2002 (2002-10-09) (France)[1]
* 31 October 2002 (2002-10-31) (Italy)[1]
* 4 March 2003 (2003-03-04) (United Kingdom)[2]

Running time

| 103 minutes[2]
Countries|

* France[1]
* United Kingdom[1]
* Italy[1]

Languages|

* French[1]
* English

Budget| €11.4 million[3]
Box office| US$8,7 million[4]

Summer Things (French: Embrassez qui vous voudrez; Italian: Baciate chi vi pare, also known as See How They Run) is a 2002 romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Michel Blanc, based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Joseph Connolly. The ensemble cast includes Charlotte Rampling, Jacques Dutronc, Carole Bouquet, Michel Blanc, Karin Viard, Gaspard Ulliel and Mélanie Laurent. The film is a co-production between France, the United Kingdom and Italy.

The film was released to critical acclaim and was a box-office hit in France, with over 1 million tickets sold. Karin Viard won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Véronique. Gaspard Ulliel won the Lumière Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance as Loïc.

## Plot

[edit]

Elizabeth and Bertrand are typical representatives of Parisian society. Behind the facade of a perfect marriage is dissatisfaction and boredom. He is a successful real estate agent having fun with much younger women or men behind the back of his wife. She suffers under the crushing uneventful life of a housewife and looks forward to a family holiday with daughter Emily. Bertrand backs out at the last minute and sends in his place Julie, Elizabeth's best friend and his former lover. He is free for a new love affair in Paris. The neighbors, Véro and Jérôme have very different problems. Jérôme is unemployed and collects gas meters. He hides his feelings of failure from Véro and son Loic. Since Véro wants to keep up with the neighbors, both families end up in the same resort. Numerous mistakes, misunderstandings and surprises are inevitable.

## Cast

[edit]

* Charlotte Rampling as Elizabeth Lannier
* Jacques Dutronc as Bertrand Lannier
* Carole Bouquet as Lulu
* Michel Blanc as Jean-Pierre
* Karin Viard as Véronique
* Denis Podalydès as Jérôme
* Clotilde Courau as Julie
* Vincent Elbaz as Maxime
* Lou Doillon as Emilie
* Sami Bouajila as Kévin
* Gaspard Ulliel as Loïc
* Mélanie Laurent as Carole

## Reception

[edit]

### Critical response

[edit]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100%, based on 6 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.[5]

AlloCiné, a French cinema website, gave the film an average rating of 4.0/5, based on a survey of 23 French reviews.[6]

### Box office

[edit]

In France, Summer Things was released to 408 screens, where it debuted at number three at the box office, selling 480,951 tickets.[3] It sold a total of 1,336,579 tickets after 6 weeks in cinemas, ranking at number 24 of the highest-grossing films in France in 2002.[3][7] The film grossed a total of $8,738,101 worldwide.[4]

## Accolades

[edit]

Year  | Award / Film Festival  | Category  | Recipient(s)  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|
|

2003  | César Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Denis Podalydès | Nominated  | [8]
Best Supporting Actress | Karin Viard | Won  | [8][9]
Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation | Michel Blanc | Nominated  | [8]
Most Promising Actor | Gaspard Ulliel | Nominated  | [8]
Lumière Awards | Most Promising Actor | Won  | [10]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f "See How They Run". UniFrance. Archived from the original on 6 August 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
2. ^ a b "EMBRASSEZ QUI VOUS VOUDREZ - SUMMER THINGS". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
3. ^ a b c "Embrassez qui vous voudrez (2002)". JPBox-Office (in French). Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
4. ^ a b "Summer Things (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
5. ^ "See How They Run (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. May 2008. Archived from the original on 2 February 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
6. ^ "Critiques presse pour le film Embrassez qui vous voudrez". AlloCiné (in French). Archived from the original on 7 February 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
7. ^ "Box Office du film Embrassez qui vous voudrez". AlloCiné (in French). Archived from the original on 7 February 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
8. ^ a b c d "Embrassez qui vous voudrez | Académie des César". Académie des César (in French). Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
9. ^ "Karin Viard, César 2003 de la Meilleure Actrice dans un Second Rôle pour EMBRASSEZ QUI VOUS VOUDREZ". Vimeo (in French). 30 September 2013. Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
10. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (16 February 2003). "Amen shines at France's Lumieres". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2022.

## External links

[edit]

* Summer Things at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Michel Blanc

* Marche à l'ombre (1984)
* Dead Tired (1994)
* The Escort (1999)
* Summer Things (2002)

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