Product Details

• Actors: Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Ledoyen, François Cluzet, Jeanne Balibar, Alex Descas
• Directors: Olivier Assayas
• Writers: Olivier Assayas
• Producers: Françoise Guglielmi, Georges Benayoun, Philippe Carcassonne
• Format: Color, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: April 11, 2000
• Run Time: 112 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1567302203
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,203 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The sublime Late August, Early September, a story of a quartet of Parisian adults (young and not so young) grappling with love, indecision, and crises of confidence, is not titled for a time of year but for a feeling, a tone, and a sense of passage. Self-conscious, shy writer Mathieu Amalric (My Sex Life...) is fast approaching 30 and furiously second guessing every step he makes. He's broken it off with delightfully gawky yet graceful Jeanne Balibar and is in the midst of an affair with the wild Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach), a sexy, young, sweet-and-sour girl with the temper of a diva. Francois Cluzet (Round Midnight), a cult author with a teenage girlfriend, is the old man of the bunch and an uncomfortable mentor to Amalric.

Shooting with a restless camera that bobs around searching for a better look, and fading out of scenes before they end, as if life continues on past our privileged peek, Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) has an unusual and unique style. It's like he catches his characters off guard, capturing moments of hesitation and discomfort, when the social front can't quite hide their fears and frustrations. All the better to appreciate their little triumphs. Not much really "happens" in the drama, but the quirky Assayas beautifully captures a portrait in messy emotions, inarticulation, and contradiction with modesty and sympathy. --Sean Axmaker

From The New Yorker

The director of "Irma Vep," Olivier Assayas, returns with a simple but powerful tale about a group of Parisians and their intense relationships. The young actors-François Cluzet (as a dying writer), Mathieu Amalric (his best friend), and Jeanne Balibar, Virginie Ledoyen, and Mia Hansen-L¿ve (their various girlfriends)-turn in realistic and varied performances that make the film a convincing, if familiar, story of love and loss. The movie is episodic (it's told in six parts), but instead of lurching from one point to the next Assayas's relaxed camera style gives the viewer the feeling of eavesdropping, and the transitions are effortless. In French. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing and identifiable characters, July 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Late August, Early September [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Some will say french melodramas are too understated and long winded but i found myself thoroughly enjoying this character-driven gem. Editing is reminescent of Godard with its jump-cut scene transitions and non-static camera movements. If you like slow character-evolving films without the overt freudian-analysis and preaching, go check out the film at a rental before purchasing.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best French Film of the Year, April 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Late August, Early September [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Late August, Early September is a gem. If you like Rohmer, but need more 'character complexity', this film will satisfy your need for intellectual stimulation, poignancy, and reality.

This film is to cinema what Kundera is to literature.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars September song . . ., July 6, 2009

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Late August, Early September (DVD)

Unlike Ozu films that are named after the time of year in which they are set, this absorbing film by French director Olivier Assayas refers more to a time of life and the feelings that accompany the awareness that one's youth is over and one's aspirations have remained unfulfilled. The title's reference to a cusp between seasons also reflects the film's interest in "in-betweenness." Characters are in between relationships, in between commitments, in between an unsettled present and an undetermined future.

The plot of the story (if it can be said to have one) is apparent mostly in retrospect, as the death of one of the characters has an impact on the lives of friends and associates. But it's not plot you enjoy in this film. Instead it's the often self-absorbed characters, on whom life's lessons are gradually dawning - we don't always get what we want, and we're not good at anticipating what will make us happy. Attempts to get our lives in order rarely pan out. Relationships to those closest to us are often conflicted by competing desires - or the dying of desire itself. In a way, the film is high-class soap opera, but as it unfolds, it manages to articulate its share of truths. Great cast and believable performances appropriately captured in a kinetic style of cinematography and editing. The DVD includes a brief interview with the director.