Le Rendez-vous de l'été

This year, the new artistic director of the Berlin International Film Festival, Tricia Tuttle, cancelled the previously acclaimed Encounters unit and replaced it with a new Perspectives unit. The new unit focuses on outstanding new filmmakers, especially those who have fluent and bold film language, compelling viewpoints, and new ways of looking at the world.

French director and actor Valentin Kadic's debut feature film Paris Summer has become a highlight of this unit and the entire Berlin Film Festival this year. It has been repeatedly mentioned and favored in various film reviews of the Berlin Film Festival. In 2020, she co-founded Les Flimeuses, a production company dedicated to supporting female filmmakers. In the same year, she began her directing career.

She collaborated again with Blondie Madyk, the star of her second short film Summer Vacation , and tailored this film between documentary and fiction for her, which is set against the backdrop of the Paris Olympics. The film was shot during the Paris Olympics, with the camera set up in the crowd, but it focused more on the private story of this queer woman. It is also a gentle interrogation of the issues behind the Paris Olympics, deftly piercing the theme park-like fantasy image of enthusiasm, diversity and inclusion that the Paris Olympics strives to present to the world.

Most of the time, our protagonist Blondie cannot really fit in the carnival atmosphere of Paris. The film does not deliberately create any conflicts. We gradually deepen our understanding of Blondie as the film progresses, and learn the purpose of her trip: to watch the swimming competition of her favorite female athlete Beryl Gastaldello and to visit her half-sister Julie whom she has not seen for ten years. We also have a deeper understanding of her failed relationship and her choice not to have children. At the same time, we also experience Hong Sang-soo's embarrassing moments with her. Blondie is pure and introverted, and has a unique sense of pause, which allows her to stumble in various embarrassing situations.

In such an Olympic moment with the most national significance, we can't see any unconscious attachment to nationalism in her. There is no such kitsch in the whole film, which is the freshness and cleverness of this film. She is more like a mirror, reflecting the doubts of the people behind the glamour of Paris who have never been exposed about the high cost of the city image project of managing the Seine River, and the questioning of the legitimacy of the act of expelling homeless people from the streets of Paris.

Blondie continued to accumulate disappointment about this trip, and gradually got lost, until the day before she left Paris, she left sadly under the hysteria of her sister for no reason, and her Paris moment really came. She sat on the back seat of the motorcycle of her new friend, electrician Benjamin, and shuttled through Paris at night, bringing a gust of summer night breeze. The two fell asleep by the river, and when they woke up on the grass, Paris was shrouded in mist before dawn. A miracle happened at this moment. Beryl Gastaldello appeared on a bridge not far away with two dogs. It was a chance morning by the river, not in the Olympic stadium.

Y’a quand même une responsabilité collective dans cette histoire. On remet tout sur le dos du PM qui par un incroyable hasard et rebondissement se retrouve pointé du doigt avec ou sans fondement. Mais on parle d’un gars qui a connu une traversée du désert et n’a joué aucun rôle majeur en France pendant 20 ans. D’un ancien president de conseil general qui ne l’est plus depuis 24 ans! Où étaient les medias nationaux pendant tout ce temps là? Ils sont passés où les responsables politiques, religieux, locaux comme nationaux, qui se cachent derrière un PM qui n’aurait jamais dû etre nommé jusqu’au jour même de sa nomination. Si Bayrou n’avait pas fait un forcing de dingue ce jour là, nous n’aurions jamais entendu parler de cette histoire, au mieux quelques articles de presse locale basés sur des rumeurs de méthodes an l’ancienne et des allusions non assumées de derives. Visiblement il n’y avait que notre PM, arrivé là dans une France paralysée (ce qui était improbable dans la Veme République) qui savait tout et n’aurait rien dit. Un type qui n’etait plus à un moment que conseiller municipal d’opposition d’une ville de 70.000hab. Ils sont où les medias nationaux qui n’ont jamais parlé de ce sujet pendant des décennies, les responsables des administrations, les ministres et politiques locaux? Le silence, s’il y a eu, a été largement partagé pendant des décennies par d’autres et les medias nationaux et les fonctionnaires des ministères concernés les premiers! Bayrou est passé dans l’opinion publique du benêt dont tout le monde disait qu’il n’etait rien, n’avait aucun pouvoir, ne servait à rien à celui qui finalement sait tout, voit tout, controle tout, mieux que tous ceux qui l’ont précédé et succedé. Et ils sont nombreux!

"Everything about this movie screams magic. The golden-hour shots, the whispered confessions, the way time seems to slow—it’s a love letter to summer romances. Not perfect, but it lingers in your heart long after the credits roll.

Refreshing take on love stories! The characters aren’t idealized—they’re flawed, messy, and achingly human. The Parisian backdrop is divine, though some plot twists felt forced. Still, a solid 4/5 for originality!

Every frame could be a painting. The director uses color like a language—sunset oranges for passion, cool blues for longing. Dialogue is sparse, but the visuals say it all. A feast for the eyes.