MY SUMMER IN PROVENCE/ AVIS DE MISTRAL

France, 2014, 105 minutes, Colour.
Jean Reno, Anna Galiena, Chloe Jouannet, Hugo Dessioux, Aure Atika,Lucas Pelissier, Tom Leeb.
Directed by Rose Bosch.

My Summer in Provence is a familiar story, an absent father, a mother seeking a job, three children taken on holidays to their grandfather’s house and learning something of life and relationships.

Jean Reno is the gruff grandfather whose daughter walked out on him 17 years earlier and has not kept in contact with his family, persuaded by his kind wife, Anna Galiena, to take on the children for the summer. The children are a boy, in mid-teens, the girl was almost a textbook of politically correct environmental precepts but spoilt and living her convictions in theory rather than practice, and a little boy who is deaf.

As the summer goes on, the little boy bonds with his grandfather working in the olive groves. The boy has to deal with his hormones and attraction to tourist girls and the proprietor of an ice cream shop. The girl is infatuated with a man with a pizza van but who is in fact the local drug dealer.

Of interest to older audiences is the group of hippies from the past, the grandfather and grandmother being in their group, who travelled the world, believed in freedom, drugs, free love – and several of them are still travelling with the same beliefs.

It is the scenery and the South of France that makes the difference for this film.

1. A family story, the different generations, the influence of the countryside, when outside Paris, relying on getting to know people, the effect of experience?

2. The colour photography, Avignon, the countryside, the town, the home, the farm, the beach? The summer setting? The musical score? The songs, The Sounds of Silence, Let the Sunshine in, Wandering Star and other songs of the past?

3. The familiar scenario, the father walking out, on later trying to contact by Skype and the children’s resentment? The mother looking for a job in Canada? The background of her choosing her husband and leaving her father and his 17 years of resentment? The kindly grandmother? Bringing the unwilling children to the country, on the train, the complaints, wanting the city, friends, Facebook…? The gruff grandfather and his initial hostility?

4. The arrival, grandfather’s reaction, the drive, and packing, the mattresses and the dust, the room, looking for a connection, television? The meal and their criticisms? The grandfather and his offhand reaction? The grandmother and her continued concern and love?

5. Adrien, his age, school, city boy, and the girls, seeing Magali, the tourist girls? Lea, her age, spoilt, eye on the boys, especially the pizza man, lazy, resentful? But full of comments about the environment and healthy food? Theo, deaf, his age, cheerful, sign language, the other two taking care of him, translating?

6. The outings, at the beach, the bull run, the music, parades? Ice cream, pizza?

7. The work on the farm, the olives, the planting, the watering, Theo enjoying it, bonding with his grandfather? The grandfather being awarded the prize for the envelopes?

8. The role of the old hippies, happy memories of the past, the international travel, drugs, free, the grandchildren with a new view on their grandparents? The friendship, the singing, the memories?

9. Lea, her grandmother’s advice, the right boy, going with the pizza man, with the bulls, his flirting, taking her to the beach, sex, drugs? The grandfather learning that he was a drug dealer, going to the beach, threatening him, his leaving? Rescuing Lea, her health?

10. The bonding, by the end of the holiday, returning home, the mother writing, the persuading her to talk to her father? The prospects of the future?