What veteran director Catherine Corsini is able to do with the powerhouse performances by [Cécile De France and Izïa Higelin] is to weave the familiar moments of self-discovery into the broader narrative of the early days of the feminist movement.

| May 23, 2022

A classic summer-of-love tale where the struggle to come out of the closet are the central themes, Summertime is set in the 70s making the most of its gorgeous cinematography and attentive period detail.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 15, 2019

The three women -- Delphine, Carole and Delphine's mother -- represent three very different perspectives on the changing -- or unchanging -- role of women.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 20, 2019

[Director Catherine] Corsini pulls off an epic romance and an austere melodrama with great skill.

| Feb 14, 2018

Overall, the film is a fairly typical retread of the lesbian-falls-for-straight-woman narrative.

| Sep 25, 2017

Corsini captures the era's lack of women's rights and opportunities and women's were just as constraining as homophobia.

| Jul 12, 2017

Yes, this French, indie, lesbian coming-of-age story does indeed echo Blue (Is the Warmest Color). But Summertime is also a delicious, remarkable love story in no need of comparisons.

| Jun 28, 2017

Corsini, aided by cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie who shot Andre Techine's coming-out masterpiece Wild Reeds, presents a gay heroine who comes to consciousness and, with a little difficulty, adjusts to her place in the real, vividly cinematic world.

| Mar 3, 2017

Catherine Corsini's film highlights the successes of second-wave feminism, but it's when the lovers move to the countryside that the film really finds its theme: the difficulties of growing up gay in a conservative community.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2017

The moderate highs and lows of Delphine and Carole's may not go down as a classic love story. But the sincerity of its actresses (including Nomie Lvovsky as Delphine's quietly observant, unyielding mother) keeps you fully invested in their journey.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2017

La Belle Saison is far from groundbreaking, but perhaps that's where its newness lies: in simply bringing queer women's concerns into mainstream arthouse filmmaking.

| Nov 15, 2016

I'll warn you; Summertime will break your heart.

| Nov 15, 2016

Summertime is a gorgeously shot film by the French director Catherine Corsini that swoons over a lesbian love affair between Ccile de France and Izia Higelin.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2016

The film is distinguished by magnificent photography by Jeanne Lapoirie and by the insightful screenplay by the director and Laurette Polmanss. It's enjoying a very limited cinema release, but is well worth checking out.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 16, 2016

The story treats each character with valid consideration, so that there's no simple resolution.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 13, 2016

...there's a bittersweet air to the film...

| Original Score: 14/20 | Sep 12, 2016

The juxtaposition of pulsating Paris with the static and reactionary countryside yields a compelling metaphor for Delphine's moral conundrum...What's frustrating about Summertime is its sometimes overly didactic tone.

| Sep 6, 2016

Far from the final word on its particular chapter of feminist history, but a very watchable, accessible primer -- a startpoint for further rumination, discussion, and perhaps even action.

| Aug 25, 2016

La belle saison, is more fitting than the English one, for the film manages to capture the natural, if ephemeral, beauty that arises from life as it is, that we all should be so lucky to enjoy at least once in our lives.

| Aug 18, 2016

There are many things to recommend Catharine Corsini's erotically charged drama.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 9, 2016