Lumière d'été

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In this allegorical and rare masterpiece, a bizarre gallery of characters representing different aspects of society (the aristocrat, the scholar, the artist) assemble in a glass castle perched atop a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Nowhere Madeleine Renaud plays the owner of a hotel where this group interacts and lives (literally and guratively) on the edge of an abyss. In stark contrast to this, down in the valley, workers vie with the elements while building an enormous hydro-electric dam. The interaction of the castle dwellers and the workers is triggered by the presence of a lovely woman, with whom everyone falls in love. Tensions reach an explosive point at a nightmarish fancy-dress ball. Grémillon’s sympathies were un inchingly with the rugged working class. A symphonic love letter to industrial modernism-to sinewy, self- made men (and women).

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