In a seaside town in Normandy, 16-year-old Alexis goes out on a boat to celebrate the start of the holidays but a sudden storm makes him capsize. David, 18, heroically comes to save him. Alexis has just met the friend of his dreams. Alas, the dream will only last one summer, the summer of' 85.
I read the novel in 1985, when I was seventeen years old, and I loved it. It spoke to me personally. The book is playful and inventive. It has drawings, press clippings, changing points of view ... I so much enjoyed reading it that, when I started directing short films, I thought: "If one day I make a feature film, my first will be an adaptation of this novel" (...)
Films are made when they're supposed to be made. This story needed time for me to mature so that I would know how to tell it. In the end, I remained faithful to the novel's narrative structure. I adapted the story's background to make it French and I transposed it to the time period when I first read the book. The movie encompasses both the book's reality and my memories of what I felt when first reading it.
François Ozon
Biography
François Ozon was born in Paris in 1967. With a master's degree in Cinema, he entered the famous French school of cinema La FEMIS in the director section in 1990. Since then, he has been shooting many movies in super-8, video, 16mm and 35mm. Many of his short movies have been in competition in various international festivals. A SUMMER DRESS won him the "Léopard de Demain" award in Locarno. SITCOM, his first feature, was in competition in the Critics' Week in Cannes in 1998. Since POTICHE, he collaborates with Mandarin Production. Many of his features films has been selected in international festivals. In 2019 BY THE GRACE OF GOD won the silver Bear in the Berlinale Competition.
FILMOGRAPHY: 2018 BY THE GRACE OF GOD 2017 DOUBLE LOVER 2016 FRANTZ 2014 THE NEW GIRL FRIEND 2013 YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL 2012 IN THE HOUSE 2010 POTICHE (TROPHY WIFE) 2009 THE REFUGE 2009 RICKY 2007 ANGEL 2005 TIME TO LEAVE 2004 5X2 2003 SWIMMING POOL 2002 8 WOMEN 2000 UNDER THE SAND 2000 WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS 1999 CRIMINAL LOVERS 1998 SITCOM
In order for our website to function optimally, we use cookies for some of our applications. This includes i.a. the embedded social media, but also a tracking tool that provides us with information about the ergonomics of our website and user behavior. If you click on "Accept all cookies", you agree to the use of technically necessary cookies and those to optimize our website. See "Cookie Settings" for more information.
Control settings
Please select your preferences. You can change these at any time.
In order for our website to function optimally, we use cookies for some of our applications. These cannot be deactivated, otherwise you will not be able to use all applications.
In order to make our website as user-friendly as possible, we have i.a. social media embedded on our website. This allows you to share content with your loved ones on the appropriate network with just a few clicks. We also use anonymous tracking technology, which gives us information about e.g. the user behavior, but also the effectiveness and ergonomics of our website. For this purpose, we also use services that may be based outside the European Union (especially in the USA), where the level of data protection may be lower than in Germany.