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Late August, Early September

1998, Movie, NR, 112 mins

Late August, Early September: Review

LATE AUGUST, EARLY SEPTEMBER
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A trés French ensemble piece about the waning bohemian years of a group of young Parisian intellectuals resisting the inevitable bourgeois future. All are plagued by unrealized creativity and unfulfilling romantic lives. Inventive, tempermental designer Anne (Virginie Ledoyen), who has a yen for kinky sex, toils at a dull clothing firm and she falls in love with would-be writer Gabriel (Mathieu Amalric), a staid man-boy who'll never satisfy her. Gabriel is trying to break up with Jenny (Jeanne Balibar), who's also floundering professionally. The fact that their dying mentor Adrien (Francois Cluzet), an impenetrable, vaguely acclaimed writer, is struggling financially makes him no less appealing in their eyes: His form of failure seems uncompromising and full of integrity. And that Jenny finds her purpose in editing Adrien's final novel — with her new lover Jeremie (Alex Descas), another Adrien acolytes — causes Gabriel no end of bittersweet regret. And what of Adrien's relationship with 16-year-old Vera (Mia Hansen-Love): Isn't it banal that he's at his most open and accessible with a teenager, to whom he leaves the cherished Joseph Beuys print he bought with the advance from his first novel? Writer-director Olivier Assayas's film gently and modestly gives us glimpses into these struggles with, and joys of money, expectations and real estate. The longer the characters back away from conviction and commitment, the more uncomfortable they are. The title alludes to this passing of time, from carefree metaphorical summer to the autumn when we throw down our childish ways and settle down to the work of adults. Assayas doesn't necessarily advocate this passage: What was Adrien seeking in Vera but eternal youth and possibility? But Assayas avoids easy resolutions, and Ali Farka Toure's score reminds us that each year brings with it a possibility that one will change the cycle. leave a comment --Sandra Contreras
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