Cinema about sex is often enriched by summer settings: escalating heat can place bodies into increasingly erotic orbits as the seeming eternity of canicular days are pit against seasonal ephemerality. While fleeting yet formative attachments are the nucleus of countless films that centre sexual self-discovery, considerably underexplored are the unenticing experiences of sexual alienation and turmoil during the warmest time of year. The title of Québec filmmaker Denis Côté’s most recent feature, Un été comme ça, suggests the generic frothiness of a hot fling, but turns on this conceit to delve into the highly specific experiences of three women in a remote treatment program for hypersexuality and sexual trauma.
Across Côté’s varied career is a recurrent fascination with isolated characters who act in perplexing, unexplained ways and resist being known.…
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Cinema Scope (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 92- Fall 2022