Burning desires of a long hot summer

Jerome Bonnell, the 23-year-old director of this enchanting film, is being talked about by some as the new Eric Rohmer. And with good reason. He shares the delicate eroticism of Rohmer's best comedies of adolescent love and the director's exquisite observation of provincial France. While the title deliberately evokes memories of Rohmer's Le Genou de Claire, the character movement and childhood symbolism are Bonnell's own.

Accompanied by his best friend since childhood, Alice (Nathalie Boutefeu), who has a habit of going out with unsuitable men, Julien (Hubert Benhamdine), an attractive, serious-minded young man, is frittering away the last of the summer at parties when he finds a focus in the local bookstore owner, whose chignon caresses the nape of her neck with tantalising sensuality.

Julien's fumbling attempts to introduce himself and the resultant complications provide the thread of this movie, which spins several tales of thwarted desire and inappropriate allure. An impressive debut from a sensitive and intelligent observer of human nature.

Le Chignon D'Olga
Cert: cert15