Summer Hours - Friday October 16th, 7.30pm

Port Fairy Film Society invites you to share in the delights of a summer table in provincial France this week with Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours.

Helene has a house full of family treasures and little time left to enjoy them. She asks her son Frederic to make sure they are preserved after her death. Once she's gone, however, Frederic must convince his sceptical brother and sister that memories are worth honouring.

With each revelation, the children and grandchildren gain an unfolding sense of a woman - and their own family's - true story. Juliette Binoche continues her dazzling career with another terrific performance as Helen's self-absorbed daughter Adrienne, while Isabelle Sadoyan plays to the film's heart as the elderly housekeeper.

The film was co-sponsored by the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and Assayas renders the aesthetic quality of these beautiful objects by making them, in a sense, co-stars of the film. More than beauty, however, this film is about loss, the preservation of stories and of the peculiar dynamic of a successful, lonely family.

"It's a rich, ambitous piece of work...this is a mature film by an accomplished director," wrote Paul Byrnes of the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Maybe this beautiful film will be too slight for many but it's certainly one of the better French films of the last year... fours stars," David Stratton said.

Summer Hours screens this Friday 16th October at 7.30pm after the Port Fairy Film Society Annual General Meeting at Reardon Theatre in Bank Street. Memberships available at the door with free tea and coffee provided.