The Real Masterchef

elBulli: Ferran Adrià and The Art of Food
When: July 2013
Where:Somerset House, London

This was an exhibition that had no right to work.  Who in their right mind would pay good money to look at small pictures of food, fake plastic food and read about a German couple opening a small hill side restaurant in Spain named after their dog?  I guess that is the pull of elBulli, the world's most famous restaurant for culinary excellence until it closed its doors to become the elBulli foundation to help inspire the next generation of chefs.

The exhibition starts with a celebration, the final dish served at elBulli, they team led be the maestro Ferran Adrià are celebrating like it's opening night.  This simple video really got me in the mood and sucked me in as we began the journey into how elBulli began.

Contrary to the way the world likes to present things elBulli  didn't just become the height of modern cuisine overnight.  In fact it had very humble beginnings as a sea side restaurant opened up by a German couple who named it after their dog.  There are some great early pictures of the couple and one that stood out to me was the sign next the restaurant from crazy golf.  Over the next 20-30 years the menu and the cooking became more refined and the restaurant was getting mentioned in guide books.  The food was influenced by French Nouveau Cuisine and they had the kind of menu that you;d see at many fine dining French restaurants around the world.  This probably explained why they hired the young Ferran Adrià to work at the restaurant thanks to a glowing recommendation from a famous French chef.

This is the point where the exhibition picks up pace and interest as we see how a love of new cuisines from France matched with a passion for seasonal and local transforms into the elBulli we became familiar with filled with foams, gels and various deconstructions.   These rules from French cooking are adapted as Ferran takes over the restaurant and gives it a philosophy and rules in order to better the food in the restaurant, make it more Spanish, fresher, seasonal.

The next part is when we see these rules come into effect and how the menu is suddenly transformed from classic French cooking to something altogether more modern.  Each dish is numbered and various experiments take place to further the food.  During this part of the exhibition you can view the various dishes via short videos and photos as well as sit at a virtual dining table and be served projected food.

The pen ultimate section of the exhibition puts elBulli  in a wider context, the influence of Japan, the furthering of the philophy and all of the equipment used to craft and serve these exquisite dishes.  We also learn about some of the more famous "regular" customers that visited the restaurant, including when elBulli turned Japanese for a week.

The final section of the exhibition dealt with the forthcoming elBulli foundation.  By the end of the exhibition  I felt truly enlightened and enthusiastic.  If you are someone that enjoys cooking or enjoys leading a team then this exhibition is fascinating, if you do both it is essential!

Would you?

Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
When: May 2014
Where: Coronet Notting Hill Gate

You'd think nothing of a white transit van driving round the streets at night, on it's way home after a day out delivering goods, transporting furniture, machinery, basically making the world go round.  Perhaps if it were driving erratically you'd be more suspicious, is it full of stolen goods, a drunk driver?  What if it was a young woman asking for directions, slightly flirtatious, would you get in?  If you were married with children you'd probably already be home eating dinner, watching TV, getting ready for bed.  If you had a significant other you'd certainly not want to risk her wrath if she saw you getting dropped off by a young lady driving a van, it really wouldn't look good at all.  How about if you were single, living alone with nothing to do?  Would you accept then?  After all it seems pretty harmless, young girl delivering antiques from a transit van, you couldn't get much safer than that?


She looks a little lost and she's quite attractive, why not?  With an accent like that she must be quite well to do, what should I say?  Not to worry she does most of the talking, where are we headed again?  Would you like to come over to my friend's place?  Ermm...  Sure why not, beats being home alone, freedom or otherwise.  Maybe I'm a good catch after all, perhaps she's after something a little different, maybe she's just saying thanks?  Okay, this is more than thanks, she's a little flirty, I like it but it can't be true, that's for sure.

We're here now, nothing to lose by going inside, it's a pretty dark in here but she's taking her clothes off and beckoning me over.  I know what I need to do now.  Oh no, she's out of reach, I feel like I'm in quick sand.  There she is, so near yet out of reach.  What?  There's someone else down here.  Too late now.  I'm confined to this place.  Nobody will come and find me, nobody knows I'm gone.

If Under the Skin ended with that it would be too simplistic, if you are a young, single and slightly lonely man not used to female attention the odds of you jumping into a transit van with a beautiful woman followed by the promise of sex you'd do exactly what the men in this film did.  You'd not worry about the aftermath, about the man on the motorbike removing all traces of your existence from the planet.

But the film asks us more, what lies under the skin?  When our alien hiding in human skin needs help a lonely man takes her in, reversing the roles, she wants to leave without a trace for fear of him discovering the truth about her, after a night of passion (well not exactly!).  Walking in the woods emotionally unsure after the kindness shown to her in an hour of need our alien is stalked and set upon by a man who tries to rape her.  There is a child like innocence to adulthood from our alien, much like the men she trapped.  There are mixed emotions as whilst nobody truly wishes rape on another, we are not talking about an innocent victim, though our rapist perhaps thinks otherwise until her human skin is damaged and left behind.

The isolated people in an isolated atmosphere become easier to empathise with, the novelty of the nudity has worn off.  The sense of feeling trapped increases and I feel worse inside, I don't know if I feel proud to be a man or even human but then is that really our fault?  Ignore the scenery, the beauty, if she drove past right now would you get in, knowing what you know?  If you were vulnerable would you help someone else or hope they went away?  Could you just wipe their memory away, make them no longer exist and move on?  Do you understand why they don't say no?  Do you understand why you don't say no?  This is no Tarantino death/rebirth of the modern man under threat by a smarter stronger woman, more a simple desire to get under our skin and see what is really underneath.

Ansel Adams

Emotional Images from a Beautiful World
What: Ansel Adams: Photography from the Mountains to the Sea
When: April 2013

Where: National Maritime Museum


What a day by the river.  What a breathtaking exhibition.  I'd been wanting to see Ansel Adams' exhibition at the National Maritime Museum for some time.  I became interested in his work after watching a documentary on his landscape photography technique.  His careful black and white manipulations of waterfalls, geysers, rivers and the oceans are a sight to behold.  What makes Adams' interesting as the candid way in which he discusses his technique of finding the right place, the right time and moment to take the shot and then using the dark room to manipulate the image for it show the emotion he felt inside when taking it.  He also talks about the advent of digital and the future of photography, it was a shame he never got to see any more than its early beginnings.


Fresh from our time with Ansel it was then time to take a scenic walk along the Thames and marvel and the river and the surrounding landscape just to contrast a little from the empty coastlines of America to the simple beauty of the London wasteland.  A great day if ever there was one.

For Details Ansel Adams: Photography from the Mountains to the Sea

Service and Street Photography

William Klein + Daido Moriyama
Where: Tate Modern
When: November 2012

I love a good bit of street photography and this exhibition didn't disappoint.  Split into two sections, one for each artist containing a mix of photography and films that both artists have produced.  The first half of the exhibition is dedicated to Klein and kicks off with a short film about Times Square that feels like being thrown into Travis Bickle's New York.  In fact the film was shot 15 years before Scorsese's masterpiece.  Then there are lots of small "candid" shots of his native New York and his adopted home in Paris.  Off to the side was a fascinating short film where Klein explains his working process for capturing the perfect moment on film, watching, waiting for the figure to line up with their environment.  There was then a selection of clips from a number of Klein's films.  The rest was a little forgettable and played with Klein's notions of image selection as per the earlier short.

Next up was Moriyama's work.  His photos felt more constructed but lacking Klein's excellent powers of selection.  For every inspiring misty road there was something that left you feeling a little bit "meh" for want for a better word.  Where as Klein was fantastic at capturing people, Moriyama seemed better at capturing the landscape and all it's wonderful light and texture.  Overall this was an inspiring and worthwhile exhibition to attend.  Additionally by going during the week it was an oasis of calm allowing you to slowly take in the works on display rather than fighting from frame to frame, shoulder to shoulder with every tourist in London.

Brawn

First impressions are important, but thankfully in my book they are not the be all and end all.  Whilst it's true that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, it is equally true that you have all the time in the world to make up for it.  I had read about Brawn on one of my favourite internet resources, Chowhound where it was talked up to be a nice, simple, reasonably priced French restaurant, the kind of place that never seems to exist outside of France.  Alighting the Overground at Hoxton we were faced with a less than helpful station map as google maps refused to tell me where I was.  We then faced a wet walk past what must have been about 20 Vietnamese restaurants only to double back on ourselves through a dark and lonely council estate before arriving at some closed shops and a restaurant with no sign above the door and not many more customers.  "Is this it?"  "According to google maps I think so, let's go in".  After being greeted by a wall of staff behind the bar, one who was practising his 1000 yard stare, the man furthest from us twigged none of his colleagues were going to welcome us in so stepped up to the plate, welcoming us warmly and getting us settled in.  After the initial glares the service was decent, though I did get the impression a few of the staff seemed more interested in having a chat behind the bar rather than helping their customer's maximise the dining experience.

Menu's are created daily and split into 3 sections, Pig, Cold, Hot and don't come with much description as to what makes up a meal or exactly what it is you are ordering, so you are not sure if you are over or under ordering.  My partner was not feeling particularly well and this was reflected in her choice of food.  I had a lovely, if not over priced glass of Ardeche Red, a Tuscan Bean Soup to start, Pork Belly for main and treacle tart to finish, with copious amounts of freshly cut sourdough bread to keep me topped up.  The soup was delicious and after a cold and wet trek to the restaurant it was just what I wanted, however from the portion size it was definitely a main course soup and not a starter.  The pork belly started off with a slightly to fatty first bite and then moved to perfection from every bite that followed, crisp skin, plenty of soft meat and only a little fat holding it together.  The cabbage was seasoned with sage and plenty of salt and cut beautifully through the fat of the pork.  Dessert was nice, a rich without being sickly treacle tart, served with what may have been a creme fraiche ice cream.

My partner went with a green salad followed by a Beef Bourginion and she followed this up with a chocolate mousse.

It was a long hard walk back to the Overground, an even harder walk to the bus stop.  I don't think I've eaten so much in a meal since Charlie Palmer Steak in Vegas, at least this meal didn't need a trip to the Grand Canyon to help walk it off!  In all, despite the bad start to the service, the food was fantastic and the price was more than reasonable considering you could easily spend close to the same amount of money eating inferior food at your local Cote.  If I can get over the slight hipster pretensions I will definitely return for another round of food.

William Klein + Daido Moriyama - Tate Modern: Exhibition - 10 October 2012 – 20 January 2013
Brawn -  49 Columbia Rd, Bethnal Green E2 7RG - 0207 729 5692

A Royal Day Out

A Royal Day Out
When: August 2012
Where: Buckingham Palace State Rooms, The Royal Mews and the Queen's Gallery

Visiting Buckingham Palace was something I'd been looking forward to for a while.  Whilst I'm not a monarchist by any stretch of the imagination, the chance to walk around a modern day working palace located right on your doorstop is something too big to turn down.  So on an Olympic day of sunshine and showers we began our Royal Day Out.  Buckingham Palace is just a short walk from Victoria station and the ticket collection office is easy enough to find, though if coming from the station you have to walk past the other parts of the palace that you will be visiting later on to get your tickets.  The whole complex is highly staffed with lots of friendly uniformed guides that somehow remind me of the temporary staff you see during Christmas at Fortnum and Mason.  The staff left a good first impression with no queuing required to collect our tickets. On leaving the ticket office we made the short walk to the first stop on our Royal Day Out ticket, The Queen's Gallery.


The Queen's Gallery

Tickets for the gallery are for a specific time, so it makes The Queen's Gallery a good place to start the tour.  The current exhibition is Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist on the study of human (and animal) anatomy.  Before going up to the gallery proper you have your tickets checked and pass through "airport style security" which is basically no metal objects in pockets and bags and electronics through the x-ray machine.  There is also a free cloakroom before entering the main exhibition where staff will stamp your ticket for free re-admission to the gallery for the next 12 months.  The main gallery area is upstairs and there is a desk for free multi-lingual audio guides.  The first room of the exhibition contains a short video explaining the background behind this exhibition and placing it into historical context as well as how the contents of the exhibition came in to the possession of the Royal Family.  The exhibit is a series of anatomical sketches made during da Vinci's life as he hoped to better understand the human body.  The exhibition places da Vinci's sketches alongside the beliefs at the time and compares them to what we know today.

During the exhibition we see how da Vinci continually struggles to bridge the gap between his observations and his beliefs, some of the things he observed and documented were not fully reproduced until hundreds of years after his death.  Of particular interest are the sketches of the brain, human reproductive systems and the way in which our muscles work.  We also see by comparison how da Vinci's sketches were very close to what appears in the anatomy books of today.  As we learn, da Vinci never fully completed his work on human anatomy and the sketches from the exhibition are taken from a book made of his collected works and notes on the subject after his death.

 In all this was not the most exciting of exhibitions but it was interesting to see how da Vinci battled between his existing beliefs and his discoveries.  It is fascinating to think how much more advanced the fields of medicine would be today if someone had continued da Vinci's work after he died and had seen it through to completion. Instead all we can do is marvel at his inquisitive mind and his fantastic drawing and presentation skills which are near unmatched to this day.


The Royal Mews

In some way this middle part of the trip was much like visiting the royal car park.  However, being a royal car park you have custom Rolls Royce as well as horses and carriages to contend with rather than the odd motor bike or Ford Mondeo.  Again a complementary audio guide is provided to help understand the history of the Mews.  The tour starts off by explaining the history of the Mews and how it grew as Buckingham Palace grew and that even today it is a fully working area complete with live in staff, not just a museum for tourists.  The tour starts by looking at some of the carriages. There is also a small exhibit on the use of motor cars.  Only Bentley or Rolls Royce will do for the Royals, custom made of course to give the best view of the Queen. There is also information on the change in role of the royal chauffeur over the years.  We then enter the stable area and learn all about the horses and the training and preparation they go through as well as the Royal Family's love of horses and riding.  There is also an interesting riding related gift from US president Obama on display here.  As we move through the stables the end point is the magnificent golden carriage which is truly a special sight.  On the way out there are a few horses you can take a look at, they appear well trained and oblivious to flash photography.  Overall the Royal Mews is an interesting diversion but not something that I would have paid for separately.



The State Rooms at Buckingham Palace and Diamonds Exhibition

The grand finale and for me the real reason for this mini-adventure; to step inside Buckingham Palace and follow in the footsteps of ambassadors, dignitaries, celebrities and possibly some corgis.  Once again it's through security and into a small holding area where we get a quick explanation of what to look forward to.  Then it's time for the audio guide again and on to the Palace!  The tour starts along a corridor that leads out on to the inner courtyard of the palace, the corridor is lined with some more modern pieces of art and the platform overlooking the courtyard contains lots of information on the history of the Palace.  After this there is a trip up a magnificent staircase to the upper floors filled with room after room of precious art and antiques, at the end of the series of rooms is the throne room.  After that there is a room filled with the masters of art from France, Italy and Holland.  It is quite amazing to see such works of art altogether without being in an art gallery or museum.  We then go through some more rooms which overlook the gardens and includes many more famous and fascinating pieces of furniture and decoration.  There is then an exhibition Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration which was the only part of the day that felt crowded and a little rushed through but again there were some amazing pieces that you may never get to see that close up ever again.  After this it was back to the final leg of the tour, down the staircase and into the sculpture gallery before leading out through what looked like a tea room and into the gardens to complete the trip.  It is only after it's all over that you can truly take in the size and scale of Buckingham Palace, the tour covers but a quarter of the building and only a brief glimpse of the gardens and yet takes a good few hours with the assistance and information from the audio guide.  Each room has a wow factor and it proved a fitting end to our Royal Day Out.

In Conclusion

Whilst it was not the cheapest way to spend an afternoon it was certainly worthwhile.  It was interesting to catch a piece of living British History and one of the reasons people from across the planet come to London.  Whilst I don't think the Royal Mews and Queen's Gallery are worth the individual admission costs, the combined ticket is great value as it is only around £10 more than the state rooms alone and £5 for over an hour of entertainment is pretty good value these days.  It's also great that there are complementary audio guides for all three parts of the day out as they really add some depth to various carriages, clocks and other works of art.  The other great thing is that you can visit again as many times as you want for the 12 months after your first visit just in case you want to see it all again...  and you never know, perhaps we will!

Royal Day Out Tickets £31.95
Buckingham Palace , London SW1A 1AA

Best of British

Best of British
St John Bread and Wine
When: July 2012
I planned this day with one idea in mind, "Think like a tourist." although my day did not turn out in quite that fashion I had planned it was still a lot more fun than my usual unplanned wanderings.  Sometimes it is easy to take living in Central London for granted.  My original plan was to start the day with a filling breakfast at St John Bread and Wine followed up with an exhibition, then a nice early dinner with a good film to round off the day.

The first key difference between think like a tourist and act like a tourist is getting up.  I had planned to get up for breakfast, but after a hard week at work (or in my case half a week of work and half a week of PS3) it's hard to get up, get ready and go get some breakfast on the other side of town.  Also the inertia of there always being another time to do this starts to kick in.  Anyway, by the time we made it out the house and on to the tube it was approaching lunch time.  Liverpool St is around 25 minutes away on the tube and Spitalfields is only a few minutes walk from the station.  Taking the scenic route along Commerical Street we arrived at St John to take a look and see if we felt like lunch and also like spending good money on lunch.  After some debate, a quick circle of the market and some persuasion on my part we ended up back at St John Bread and Wine and settled in for lunch.

The restaurant is sparsely decorated despite its smart white and black exterior, there are simple tables and chairs inside with wait staff decked out in all white chef-style uniforms.  We were seated and quickly given menus, a jug of fresh water and a plate with some very tasty slices of brown and white sourdough bread.   The crowd inside was pretty mixed, not fitting a particular scene in terms of age or dress but erring on the casual.  I washed down my food with some Meantime lager, our other drink was apple juice.  The food menu changes daily depending on what is available and today we both went with rabbit after I was talked out of a 40 minute wait for the pigeon.  There was a short wait for our food, a full plate with two large pieces of rabbit each, some nice greenery, baby carrots and some aioli on the side.  The food was really good with everything complementing the rabbit.  The only negative was having to watch out for bones in the rabbit but the food was delicious and filling leaving us with the debate of dessert.

The debate was short lived, though in hindsight we should have had one dessert to share rather than one each.  We had the brioche with apricots and the chocolate cake with crème fraiche ice cream.  The brioche was fresh and buttery to the point of almost tasting like a good croissant, they contrasted well with the sweet, yet sharp apricots in their juices and a little bite of the crème fraiche ice cream to cleanse the palate and set off on another round.  The chocolate cake was almost brownie like and tasted like it was made with good cocoa or chocolate and again the ice cream acted as a cleansing respite from the intensity of the chocolate.  At this point we were stuffed to bursting after enjoying some great food.  Despite the quality of the food with the bill at just over £50 it was not a cheap lunch and perhaps would have made a much better dinner.  Anyway, St John certainly lived up to its Internet hype and is somewhere I'd like to dine at again.
 
Damien Hirst

We then began a brief and much needed walk through the city of London and across Southwark Bridge towards Tate Modern.  We had mixed expectations of this exhibition, which I have to admit I was keen to see after reading some of the reviews.  Not having booked we joined a fairly long queue for tickets as there were only two people issuing tickets for a fairly significant queue.  We made our way upstairs to the exhibition which thankfully was not too crowded.  The exhibition is divided up into 14 rooms displaying Hirst’s work largely in chronological order.

The first room had a rather striking picture of a young Hirst posing with a head from the anatomy department of Leeds University, there were also some pots and pans stuck on one wall and some rather attractively placed coloured boxes in the corner of another wall.  In the next two rooms there were some spot paintings and medicine cabinets.  We also had some   animals suspended in formaldehyde, in this case the famous shark, sheep, fish and sheep's head.  This room was a bit like a larger than life museum exhibition and was quite fascinating to look at.  You can spend time out staring the shark, watching the fluffiness of the sheep's coat and the tranquil but dead eyes of the fish suspended in time and space and strapped to the walls.  My highlight of this room was A Thousand Years, a large glass cabinet with a fresh cows head in it, the cabinet is used to breed flies and you can see them flying around, lying dead or resting.  Somehow it all feels very human when you talk about it, the fear and fascination of the bloody head stuck on the floor and the distance the glass casing gives is quite un-nerving.

Room 4 looks like the kind of thing you might see in a museum on 20th Century life 100 years from now.  The large glass case with the empty office chair and desk.  There is also a cabinet in the style of the pill boxes but filled with various cigarette butts.  Do we see ourselves like this now, or is this how our great grandchildren will see us, in a museum display case much like we now see life in the mines or on a traditional farm today?  Room 5 was overshadowed by Room 6.  In this room butterflies are living their lives in a controlled environment, in the room before they are stuck onto painted canvas to make works of art.  Who is the artist running our lives, it doesn't feel like God/a god.

Room 7 was a giant pharmacy which made me feel quite uncomfortable, the giant floor to ceiling cases filled with medicine and the lack of humanity made the experience of walking around the room in silence with strangers quite unusual.  Being an observer rather than a participant in what is otherwise a familiar domain makes it take on a whole new perspective.  After taking our pills in Room 7, Room 8 gave us the hypnotic Spin Paintings.  Room 9 I found much more fascinating, walking between the halves of a cow and its calf suspended in time and the huge white ashtray filled with the stench of cigarette butts was truly an unpleasant sensation.

Moving into Room 10 we entered a giant supply cupboard for a hospital with wall to wall cabinets of beautifully organised, spotless pieces of metallic medical equipment.  We were being prepared for death and now that science has failed to preserve us we head back to Religion and Room 11.  In this room there are beautiful stained glass style butterfly paintings and a marble statue of an angel, however one that is distinctly and fatally real with its organs and insides on show.  In Room 12 maybe we head one step closer to hell with a 70s shag rug made of flies and a beautiful sheep in a case to keep the neighbours talking.

Room 13 offers its own vile conclusion as we are offered a selection of recent Hirst works which feel like horrible blinged our parodies of his previous work.  All the mysticism of life, death and beliefs have been replaced with cold, hard cash.  Items sold for auction and private consumption rather than placed in a gallery for all and everyone to see.  What's left after you buy into consumerism, maybe just death or perhaps an inner peace from selling all your things and a more simple life?  The serene beauty of the dove frozen in time feels like the right way to end this journey.

This exhibition throws up lots of questions on the nature of art.  For me the exhibition was like walking through a museum depicting the last 50 years of life on Earth in abstract.  The emotions gained from the experience though are quite different from walking through the National History Museum, looking at the animals in London Zoo, or wandering through a prefab house at the Science Museum. 
In all we had a day that was much more than the sum of its parts, things we could feel, taste and experience but that felt familiar and close to home and try as we might to break our patterns and do, feel or behave in a different way we ended up exactly the same.
 
St. John Bread and Wine 94-96 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LZ.
Tate Modern  Bankside,  London, SE1 9TGDamien Hirst till 9th September 2012

I can't Hear from all the Screaming in the Gallery

Basquiat

When: 26/12/2010

Where: Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris

There are many ways to spend Boxing Day: lounging in front of the TV, filling up on leftovers, the sales etc. However, though I can do all of those things I'd much rather be expanding my mind and my experience of the world with an art exhibition, so here goes. It was a cold and icy day yet the queue for the gallery was stretching round the block a little but moving fast. Once in and warmed up it was time to start and thankfully although busy there was enough space for contemplation. The exhibition started with early works. If paintings played music, shouted and screamed then you were in heaven. For a moment you found yourself in early '80s New York, Hip Hop, noisy Subway trains, rubbish and people shouting and screaming. For me this was one of the best parts of the exhibition and I found it very stimulating.

The next section of the exhibition concentrated on diagrams, notes and plans. I found these complemented the main pieces extremely well. The notes and diagrams helped you to see the order and meticulous planning involved in the various pieces as well as pick up on the meaning behind the recurring themes. I spent a lot of time looking at all the details and found it incredibly worthwhile.

The final section of work consisted of some of Basquiat's final pieces including a collaboration with Andy Warhol. I did not enjoy any of the work in the final section. The noise had gone from the art and it had been replaced with the quiet of the gallery and the flatness of a magazine cover. Instead I could feel the clink of the champagne glasses. I just didn't get it anymore. Sadly Basquiat died young so we never got to see where he could have ended up with his work and talent which is a terrible shame.

In addition to the Basquiat exhibition there was also a short exhibition of Larry Clark's photos. Although the man has his critics the photos were on the whole very beautiful and still looked and felt as current as ever. Clark really catches the vulnerability of youth along with its confidence and innocence both in his films and photography and this exhibition was no different. It felt like looking through the glossy urban fashion magazines of my late teens and all the emotions that came with those times. In all I had a fantastic Boxing Day beating a combination of bad TV and the family walk many times over.

3 Fridays, 3 French Films Part 3: Summer Hours

Film: Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas, 2008)
Watched: July 18th

Where: Renoir Cinema

Summer Hours makes for a great conclusion to the three films about how we have such a lack of control about how our lives and the lives of others are viewed after their time. The three films are also about family and the situation you inherit. Angel was the grocer's daughter who wanted to make her mark with words. Slimane wanted to leave something behind for his family so they could make something on their own terms. In Summer Hours we have the story of a modern upper middle class family spread apart from each other by work. More specifically we look at the power and context of things, Angel's books, celebrated and forgotten, Esme's masterpieces of suffering, Slimane's food and restaurant bringing everyone together again to give them something that is uniquely theirs in an expanding world. In Summer Hours it is art and antiques at the centre stage as objects as well as their place and our place in a global world.

It's Hélène's 75th birthday and her now grown up family complete with grandchildren jet in from near and far to come together for their annual family reunion. Hélène knows her time in the world is coming to an end and wants to make the necessary arrangements with her children for her estate and the many precious artifacts in her possession from a life spent with artists. Her children hate to discuss this with her. Most of the real action takes place after Hélène's death, as her children, not having taken their mother's advice, try and decide what to do with their inheritance. The debate is on two sides, do the siblings share the items between them or do they sell them off? Frédéric (the only one of the three to remain in France) believes they should keep the house and art to leave as a legacy for the children and for all the memories that they had there together and will have there in the future. The rest of the family are not in agreement, the youngest sibling Jérémie living and working in Asia (he wants to progress his career, that's where the action is), their sister Adrienne a designer in New York again prefers to sell as she's hardly ever in France. Much to Frédéric 's dismay they decide to sell and for tax purposes to donate much of the art to the Musée d'Orsay. There are three endings to the film, the first is Hélène's long time housekeeper taking what she thinks is an unremarkable vase (which is actually rather valuable) when offered something from the house. The second takes place at the Musée d'Orsay when we see the disinterested reception of some of the Hélène's furniture by the public and also the all the many items in the museum's archive and restoration sections (normally unseen by the public). The third and final ending is that of the soon to be sold house. Frederic's daughter throws a huge party there for her friends and the camera follows them lovingly through the house as it once more takes in some happy family memories, most probably for the last time. Frederic's daughter takes her boyfriend to a hidden spot in the grounds of the house that only someone who had spent happy times there would know. The film ends with the happy scenes of the house party.

Like the other two movies in this set of three we see how once something moves from the private space into the public the perceptions of it can be different. The desk is a functional and beautiful object in Helene's home but when it moves into the museum it becomes just another object of many with no memories for those who view it. Likewise the memories of the house and the house party are different for Frederic's daughter to that of the other party goers, she has her own private space, to everyone else it's just a big old house. In contrast when the housekeeper takes the vase when she leaves Helene's house for the last time to her it is just a beautiful vase that she always loved, for the memories it gave her as much as for the vase itself. Unbeknown to her the vase was also a valuable item which could have easily been a museum piece to be forgotten and ignored at the Orsay along with the rest of Helene's collection. Like the house and the collection the collaborators must also give up their film and move it in to the public space for it to be celebrated or forgotten. However, Summer Hours finishes on a positive note in that the personal memory and significance of something will never be lost if it truly means something to you, something that is true of Slimane's restaurant, his family and his guests who turned out, something that is up for debate in Angel's books.