500 Days Of Summer 720p Yify
Mica Withington
Set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, this documentary mixes images of water and the town with performers and audience. The film progresses from day to night and from improvisational music to Gospel. It's a concert film that suggests peace and leisure, jazz at a particular time and place.
Not quite a concert film, not quite a travelogue, this "day and night in the life" of the Newport Jazz Festival is a delight. Some standout performances, including an unforgettable rendition of Sweet Georgia Brown by Anita O'Day and a gorgeous set by a beatific Mahalia Jackson would make this film worth watching all on their own. But, there's more. A very young Chuck Berry makes an appearance, and the earliest Rock and Roll seems boring by comparison to the many styles of jazz displayed in this film. Despite the repetitive groove, the folks in the audience can't help moving their feet to it and the future is foretold. Bert Stern deliberately moves the focus away from Berry's stage pyrotechnics and keeps it on the audience and the amused if bored jazz musicians. Did he know this was what the future held? Maybe. Bits and pieces of the lives of affluent Newport residents, a yacht race (America's Cup qualifying), jazz musicians practicing, a break into Bach by a cellist, dancing on the rooftops, all the small parts that make this film greater than their sum, this is one worth watching, and perhaps, like me, you'll find it one worth adding to your permanent library of musical film.
This film really stuck with me, and so I feel compelled to say a few things about it.
It's one of the earliest concert films I've ever seen, and honestly maybe one of the better ones. I say that as someone who likes some jazz sometimes but wouldn't count it among my personal favourite music genres. That being said, the performances here are largely great, and it does a fantastic job of showing why jazz means so much to so many people. It conveys how fun jazz can be, how entertaining its musicians can be, the technical prowess involved, and also how it can be surprisingly moving.
Only a handful of names were familiar to me, but all proved entertaining to watch. Chuck Berry stood out in a slightly jarring way, being more of a rock artist than a jazz artist, but he ended up fitting in well. There's a nice flow to all the performers, I liked how it included the MC introducing them, and I loved the concert's progression from day to night.
In general, the visuals are what elevate this from being a good concert film with entertaining music and performances to a great concert film/ documentary. My favourite part might of been the montage of life in Newport on that day, about halfway through the film- of course it could have been filmed on a different day, but it's such great, hypnotic filmmaking that you don't think about it at the time. Seeing these people dancing, drinking, smoking, especially the people on the roof... it was surprisingly beautiful and moving.
I was born almost 40 years after this concert even took place, but somehow, it still managed to evoke a strong sense of nostalgia. I don't doubt that life was still complicated back then, and there were hardships and tribulations in the same way to how those things exist nowadays. Yet for 80-something minutes, you don't think about that. You're transported into a town that for one summer's day, in 1958, allowed all its citizens to have the time of their lives, and there's something incredibly and unexpectedly beautiful about that, even for a 25-year-old, very casual jazz fan like myself.
I'd recommend this to all fans of concert films and documentaries, or maybe just films in general. I'm happy to see a high score on here, but the low number of ratings is a little saddening. This deserves to be considered at least a minor classic, but even if that never happens, I'm glad I watched it, and am thankful to my grandfather for recommending it; without him, I may have never even heard of it.
Looking at the reviews already posted it appears that some of the negatives are from purists looking for the perfect jazz film which, by definition, doesn't exist. As someone who tends to favour 'modern' as opposed to 'trad' jazz I can live without the Big Maybelles and Mahalia Jacksons of this world thank you very much but this wasn't sold as 'Modern' Jazz On A Summer's Day or even 'Trad' Jazz On A Summer's Day but simply Jazz On A Summer's Day with Across The Spectrum being tacitly understood so if I have a problem with Big Maybelle, Chuck Berry, Mahalia Jackson etc I can, on the DVD, fast forward, certainly on any subsequent viewings but initially I was happy to watch it all and get the most from the wide selection of styles. The film was made two years after MGM utilised the Newport Jazz Festival as the background to High Society and in that film Louis Armstrong and his All Stars were meant to be appearing at that year's festival and here Life Imitates Art as Armstong and his All Stars are featured performers. For me the cutaways which include the Americas Cup work well and the whole is an aural and visual delight.
What do you dream of when you're 16-years-old and in a seaside resort in Normandy in the 1980s? A best friend? A lifelong teen pact? Scooting off on adventures on a boat or a motorbike? Living life at breakneck speed? No. You dream of death. Because you can't get a bigger kick than dying. And that's why you save it till the very end. The summer holidays are just beginning, and this story recounts how Alexis grew into himself.
As "Summer of 85" opens, the Cure's "In Between Days" plays over the opening credits, and we then get to know Alex, 16. He lives is a small seaside town in Normandy. Wnen he goes out sailing, he capsizes and almost drowns, but is rescued by David, 18. They strike up an immediate friendship and start hanging out together. Then Alex encounters Kate, an English girl who is an au-pair girl for the summer while trying to improve her French. At this point we are 10 min. Into the movie...
Couple of comments: this is the latest from writer-director Francois Ozon, whose previous work includes, among many others, the excellent ""Frantz", "In the House" and "Swimming Pool", just to name those. Hence my expectations were quite high for this. Alas, it was not to be. For that the movie is just too average. The two acting leads (Flix Lefebvre as Alexis, Benjamin Voisin as David) are tentative at best, and awkward at times. And the story has run its course, literally, after 70 min., and we must endure another 20 min. That are entirely superfluous. One of the most fun things about the movie, set in the mid-80s, is to watch all of the cars from that era (Citroen, Renault, etc.). Other funny side note: the film was originally titled "Summer of 84", but in order to secure the rights to the Cure's "In Between Days" (which was released in 1985), Robert Smith insisted that the film be set in 1985, and hence the movie's title was changed to "Summer of 85".
This movie was set to premiere at last year's Cannes film festival. Of course COVID-19 had other plans... The movie opened out of the blue at my local art-house theater this weekend. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at was not attended well: 3 people, including myself. I can't see this playing in US theaters much longer. For that the movie simply is too average. But of course you don't have to take my word for it, so I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (while you still can), on VOD< or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.
Flix Lefebvre (who reminded me, here, of a young Charlie Hunnam in "Queer as Folk" (1999)) is sixteen year old "Alex" who takes his friend's dinghy out for a sail and gets caught in a thunderstorm that capsizes his boat. Luckily for him, Benjamin Voisin ("David") is nearby and tows him ashore and into his mother's recuperative bathtub! The next six weeks are now depicted in a cleverly interwoven mix of current and recent storylines as we realise that a tragedy has occurred and that the two young men had something of a relationship during the intervening period. On the face of it - it's just a gay coming of age drama, but Levebvre has an intensity and innocence about him. His performance as the young man who falls so completely and utterly in love is heart-rending, sincere and stylishly captured by the photography - and must remind all of us of that first, inexplicable, "love" that we may well still recall to this day. To be fair, it is easy to see why he fell for the charismatic, exciting "David" - who offers him profound changes to his life, and to the rather linear options that most of us faced at 16 - job or school - but the story is more nuanced than that and though it is certainly not without some fairly substantial holes and inconsistencies, it sort of works. The Cure's "In Between Days" and an oddly effective "Sailing" from Rod Stewart provide a remarkably potent soundtrack that resonates not just the moment, but the sentiment too. Not, maybe, Ozon's finest work but I suspect we may see more roles from his young star in the future.
Earlier this year we tested the Gore Ardent Bib Shorts+, and at a glance they're virtually identical to these. Both feature a Gore Windstopper Cup for groin protection, both are designed to be breathable in warmer weather, and both have a close fit for enhanced comfort and aerodynamics. This Torrent version is 50 cheaper, too, so what gives?
There are several key differences that aren't immediately obvious, and the Torrents have longer legs and flat hems rather than raw cut. Most crucially though, the pad is different. These use Gore's Advanced chamois, which is slightly thinner than the Expert in the more expensive Ardents, and in theory lighter and more breathable.
I did find that because the material is quite thin the straps wanted to twist themselves into a tizzy every time I put them over my shoulders, which required a bit of fiddling, but it's not a deal breaker by any means.
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