Eté 85

Grim-faced 16-year-old Alex Robin (Félix Lefebvre) is being questioned by police about what we are led to believe is the murder of his best friend, 18-year-old David Gorman (Benjamin Voisin). Cue the flashbacks to a heady, beachside summer romance between the two that begins when David rescues Alex from a capsized sailboat and blossoms—for Alex, at least—into an earth-shaking first love… François Ozon’s nostalgic look back to the mid-80s is a romantic, sexy, and ultimately tragic coming-of-age tale that is awash in gorgeous colour and sunny locations, and anchored by two fine performances from Lefebvre and Voisin, two relative unknowns who are destined for great things. A treat!

‘In terms of style, Summer of 85 is a lightheaded throwback to the bold, insouciant spirit of the director's earliest works. But here, the story and the characters' supposed naiveté and the almost-too-obvious stylistic flourishes aren't just nods to his younger, less-refined m.o. They are actually part of a master storyteller's tools to seduce a grown-up audience into considering how youngsters not only experience their own lives but also how they process and talk about them… [Pascaline Chavanne’s] costumes grab your attention but only because that's what 1980s clothes do to our 2020 eyes, and more specifically, that's exactly what youngsters who want to express themselves are after. And boy, do the boys of Summer of 85 succeed in grabbing our attention.’—Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter