a film by Franck Guérin
2006 | 92 mins | France
Baptiste Bertin .... Sébastien
Jean-François Stévenin .... Maurice
Catherine Mouchet .... Mickaël's Mother
Théo Frilet .... Mickaël
Brice Hillairet .... Francis
Elise Caron .... Louise
Philippe Fretun .... Sébastien's Father
Léa Didier .... Manuella
Anne Lopez .... Mickaël's Sister Noémie
Bernard Blancan .... Mayor's Assistant
Yann Peira .... Police Investigator
Thierry Godard .... Football Coach
One Day in Summer
a rewarding and yet equally frustrating
work of homosexual longing
Screened in Great Britain as part of the
21st London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
- 31 March & 2 April 2007
Available on DVD as part of the
Parasol Pictures Releasing catalogue
www.parasolpictures.co.uk
AWARDS
Avignon Film Festival
Winner Prix Tournage Award
Namur French Film Festival
Winner Best Film
New York Film Festival
Winner Best European Film
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Sébastien and Mickaël are the best of friends, seemingly joined at the hip over their
love of the beautiful game and their love of life. Only when a freak accident on the playing
field robs Mickaël of his, Sébastien is left to come to terms with the loss
of a close friend and the void that his death brings to his world, one of raging
hormones and conflicting sexuality.
Shot and edited with considerable skill, this marks a highly impressive work from co-writer and
director Franck Guérin. Only for all that is going for it, from its sweeping views of the
beautiful sun-baked French countryside to the committed performances from the cast and
inparticular from its lead players, boys of beauty who excel in the smouldering looks department,
the end result is gay, only not as we know it. That does not mean to say that this is a bad
film. But it is to say that close encounters of the homosexual kind are replaced by
longing glances, as this feature notably downplays overt homosexuality to
focus instead on the grieving process and unfulfilled gay desires.
That Mickaël's mother and Sébastien help each other through their emotional loss is a
wonderful and quite touching aspect of the storyline, as Sébastien finds in her a mother
figure missing from his own life and in turn the mother, a love that lacked in her relationship
with her son. Yet the anger that the townsfolk feel over the sudden death of one of their
own, vented as it is in the direction of Maurice, the local Mayor who finds his feelings
of compassion for the family at odds with his need to avoid official accountability,
is further complicated by the Mayor's son Francis making eyes in Sébastien's direction.
Or is he? For the trouble with this work is that it never allows a gay relationship to develop,
their friendship being forever chained at ground level, inspite of looks that suggest that
it is desperate to break free with wild abandon. Then again, Sébastien's relationship
with Mickaël is something of a mystery, for whilst inseparable friends, their deep
fondness for each other prompts questions that are never fully answered, inparticular
the true nature of their sexuality.
So to keep the boys happy, Guérin throws in shower scene camaraderie, male nudity and loads of
beckoning eye movements. Only are such elements, let alone the narrative, enough to keep the
boys entertained? For some undoubtedly, given this remains a well-executed film, laced as it
is with feelings of guilt and remorse, hints of corruption and a strong sense of character
development, as the adolescent of the piece comes to develop into a man. Yet for those seeking
a more intimate degree of gay visualisation, this feature may well fail to please, given the
homosexual content on offer here is not only understated, but frankly open to interpretation.
Then again, so too are many other aspects of this rewarding and yet equally frustrating work.
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