‘Endless Summer Syndrome’ Review: Family Vacation Leads to Ruination in a Thorny, Alluring French Thriller
Courtesy of Altered Innocence
For many, the final days of summer bring with them a sense of creeping dread, marking the transition into the darkest months of the year and a return to routine, away from the carefree protection of vacation time. Endless Summer Syndrome, which hits select U.S. theaters and VOD on December 13, employs this anxiety brought on by the end of summer and wholly amplifies it to construct a twistedly composed film that is both absorbing and challenging. The feature debut from Prague-based Iranian filmmaker Kaveh Daneshmand, Endless Summer Syndrome centers around a seemingly ordinary upper-bourgeoisie French family thrown into total discord over the course of their final weekend of the summer holidays.
The film tracks Delphine (Sophie Colon), a successful lawyer who aptly juggles her busy profession with her loving family. For many years, Delphine has been married to Antoine (Mathéo Capelli), an intellectual who spends his days devoted to his home, incorporating quotes from Kafka and Sartre into almost every conversation, often to the annoyance of his children. Unable to successfully bear a child of their own, the couple has two adopted teenagers, Adia (Frédérika Milano) and Aslan (Gem Deger), who have been part of their lives for many years. An envisionment of the modern French family, the happy quartet spends the last days of summer at their attractive country villa, relishing time with Aslan before he heads to New York City for university in just a few short days.
On a Friday afternoon, while her husband and kids hang out with cocktails by the pool, Delphine unexpectedly receives a random call from a Paris payphone with a woman’s voice on the other end, claiming to be one of Antoine’s colleagues. Remaining anonymous, the woman tells Delphine that Antoine –– in a moment of drunken despair –– revealed to her that he is carrying out an affair with one of his children. Stupefied beyond belief, Delphine never shares the distressing call with anyone in her household, instead spiraling into a state of increasing paranoia and anxiety as she tries to uncover the truth for herself. As the weekend progresses, what should have been a peaceful occasion of familial bliss plunges into a spectacle of deceit and suspicion that alters the clan forever.
Courtesy of Altered Innocence
Co-written with Laurine Bauby and Deger (who also co-produces the film), Endless Summer Syndrome proves an assured and provocative debut from Daneshmand, probing questions of morality and complicity within the nuclear family unit with an intellectual vibrancy rarely explored onscreen. Progressing with a non-linear narrative that withholds information from the viewer until it is tantalizingly exposed, the movie’s rhythm steadily builds tension to keep audiences squirming uncomfortably until its final frames. With a cast comprised only of the four family members, the filmmaker is able to fully flesh out his understanding of their characters and the motivations that flare their behavior and choices, a unique skill for a first-time filmmaker and one that allows for the audience to fully embed itself within their holiday from hell.
The film captures a slippery but honest portrayal of family dynamics that feel very authentic, taking time to showcase the interpersonal links that can independently exist between members within the same family, a concept seldom portrayed within cinema to such intriguing depths. Whether the relationship between Adia and Aslan as siblings –– adopted “outsiders” –– or between Delphine and Adia as women, or Aslan and Antoine as men, for that matter, Endless Summer Syndrome expresses the autonomous connections that can exist within a household. It employs them with highly effective methods to solidify the secrets that bubble just below the surface of this unfortunate family.
Despite Daneshmand’s multinational background, Endless Summer Syndrome feels deeply in communication with the traditions of French cinema, far beyond the language its characters use and the nationality of its actors. As the movie starts, its visual sensibility and unhurried cadence align with classic summer films from directors like Eric Rohmer or Jacques Deray. However, as the shocking secret at the story’s core gradually tears the family apart, the work devolves with an edginess reminiscent of the New French Extremity movement of recent decades. This distinctive combination of narrative and formal impulses never feels derivative throughout the movie’s runtime and reinforces its dynamic shifts as it descends into grimmer territory.
Courtesy of Altered Innocence
One can automatically be swept up in the sensual, sun-blazed visual language of Endless Summer Syndrome. Daneshmand and cinematographer Cedric Larvoire capture the actors and the country house where the film was shot with an aesthetic loveliness that aligns with our initial expectations of this “ideal” family and the privilege their lives afford them to have such a beautiful abode and the luxury of leisure time. Upon further inspection, one fast notices the utilization of a square aspect ratio that strongly mirrors the confinement of the film’s characters, which only grows more constraining after the enigmatic phone call to Delphine. Through this approach, Daneshmand communicates the psychological transformation that occurs within the family over the weekend when their sanctuary slowly evolves into a place of anguish.
Equally refined and unsettling, Endless Summer Syndrome flaunts nuanced character dynamics and technical filmmaking that proves a promising debut from Daneshmand, one that works with compelling methods to comment on ideas regarding the traditional family unit and the forces that influence it within a modern context.
3.5/5
2023 | 93 minutes | Color | French wtih English Subtitles
‘Endless Summer Syndrome’ won the Karlovy Vary Works in Progress award in 2022 before making its world premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Festival in the First Feature Competition in 2023. The film will be screened in select U.S. theaters and will be available on VOD beginning Friday, December 13, courtesy of Altered Innocence. Click here for more information about ‘Endless Summer Syndrome.’