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It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I just can't understand why anyone would be willing to have spent all the time, effort, and money it takes to make a film on something like this. It really takes a lot of effort to make a movie. More than a few people in this world felt passionately enough about this thing to write it, direct it, shoot it, rehearse it, finance it, etc, etc. My god! It's not that it's really bad or anything, there just doesn't seem to be any point in it existing. It's a boring movie about everyday people doing everyday crap. Sometimes they hang out at the beach. Sometimes they bicker. There's some kissing. Why? Why not just do nothing instead?

At first, I thought this was a sequel to Entre Nous. Many of the same people who made one film made another, they are supposedly written by and about the same people and the character names are repeated. However, those playing the roles are NOT the same (although Jean-Pierre Bacri stars in BOTH films but plays totally different roles). Because of this, some viewers might be VERY disappointed. It reminded me of the movie A Christmas Story. There was a little-known sequel named Ollie Hopnoodle's Haven of Bliss that had NONE of the original characters or charm--and because of this it was soon forgotten. Now the only difference I see is that both these French films are about equally good. Apart from the many differences mentioned above, this film doesn't seem to have a negative view of men (in Entre Nous, the male leads were all Neanderthals), but portrays the mother in the story as a self-absorbed woman whose kids seemed to be an afterthought--her new boy-toy was about 90% of her focus. Because of this, individuals who watch this film AND have issues with a neglecting mother should think twice before watching--you MAY find this film kicks up a lot of feelings.

I have seen this movie on the German TV yesterday with the title: "A summer at the sea" and I was deeply impressed.Despite that it was produced in 1990, the theme is more up-to-date than ever. Excellent actors of all ages performed very well indeed, a great story, some romantic spots and lovely music will make you thinking about the relationship of children to their parents, their pain and childish emotions which often get hurt.This story could happen today, next month or the following year, next door of you or at any other location or country. So you will get nothing NEW out of that movie but the sad reality of daily life in the eyes of children whose parents can't behave.I only can highly recommend this movie - buy the DVD and you will enjoy it definitively more than just one time.

This was the fifth of the nine films Diane Kurys has so far directed and the third of three (Diabolo Menthe, Coup de Foudre being the others) that deal with her own experiences in childhood and adolescence. In the second film, Coup de Foudre, the character based on Kury's own mother and fictionalised as Lena was played by Isabelle Huppert whilst here Nathalie Baye assumes the role opposite Richard Berry as husband/father Michel. The action has moved on from the war and post-war years in Lyon (Kury's own home town) to the late 1950s when thirteen year old Frederique (Julie Bataille), the closest character to the young Kurys herself and her eight year old sister Sophie are taken by their Nanny Odette (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) to the seaside for the summer vacation. A pre-credit sequence reveals to us the gulf (explored first in Coup de Foudre) that now exists between the parents and which the sisters are perhaps subconsciously aware. At the last minute - literally at the railway station itself - they realize that Lena will not accompany them. Once established at the resort they take out their frustration on Odette as a ploy to force their mother to join them but when she does so she spends more time with a lover Claude (Vincent Lindon) than with them. Also on hand are Leon (Jean-Pierre Bacri and the highly fertile Bella (Zabou) and when Michel shows up he deliberately destroys the car that symbolised Lena's independence and engages in a verbal and physical quarrel with Lena that is so intense that Frederique threatens to kill herself with a shard of glass broken during their fighting. This is an outstanding film in which the pain of adolescence is once-removed through the filter of nostalgia and replete with the tiny 'touches' - popular songs of the day, etc - that we use as signposts to lead us back into the past. Fifteen years on it's fascinating to see the younger versions of six exceptional French actors two of whom (Zabou with Se Souvenirs des belles chooses, and Bruni-Tedeschi with Il est plus facile pour un chameau ...) would go on to direct outstanding films themselves. I can't recommend this one highly enough.