Strand Releasing is proud to announce the release of SUMMERTIME, acclaimed French writer-director Catherine Corsini’s 1970s set, unabashedly sexy, intimate and realistic love story between young farm girl Delphine (Izïa Higelin) and Carole (Cécile de France,) a feminist organizer from Paris.  Winner of the Variety Piazza Grande Award at the Locarno Film Festival, SUMMERTIME is scheduled to open on Friday, July 22 in New York (Film Society at Lincoln Center, IFC Center) and Los Angeles (Laemmle’s Royal) followed by a national roll-out.

France, 1971.  Delphine (Izïa Higelin) moves from her conservative parents’ home near Limoges to Paris to break free from her rural lifestyle and gain financial independence.  There, she meets and is drawn to Carole (Cécile de France), with whom she embarks on a passionate, mutually invigorating love affair.  When a family sickness pulls Delphine back to the farm, their bliss is interrupted and Carole has to decide whether to follow her into hostile territory, where their relationship becomes more complicated and fraught than its seductive, luminous visual palette initially suggests. SUMMERTIME’s noted female cinematographer is Jeanne Lapoirie whose work includes Wild Reeds, 8 Women, Under the Sand, and Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem.

Catherine Corsini grew up in Seine et Marne, France. She moved to Paris at 18 to study acting at the prestigious Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique before becoming a filmmaker. She is known for very personal films that range in tone from the bleak and violent to the tender and emotionally warm. Often premiering in Cannes, her films include Lovers, the Emmanuelle Béart starrer La Répétition, and Three Worlds. Corsini recently served as the President of the Camera d’Or jury at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Beloved Belgian-born actress Cécile de France won her first César (for Best Supporting Actress) for her performance as Isabelle in Cédric Klapisch’s hit L’Auberge Espagnole, and her second César for the role she reprised in Russian Dolls.  Among her many film credits, she starred in Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s The Kid with a Bike, and had English-speaking leading roles in Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter and Around the World in 80 Days opposite Jackie Chan. Her SUMMERTIME co-star, 25 year-old Izïa Higelin, is the daughter of French singer-songwriter-actor Jacques Higelin, and sister of singer Arthur H. A singer-songwriter herself, Ms Higelin won two Victoire de la Musique Awards (France’s top music awards) for her first album, and went to win a César for Best Female Newcomer in 2013 for her debut film performance in Patrick Mille’s Bad Girl.

“Beautifully realized …powerful”- Peter Debruge, Variety

“De France is a terrific firecracker of ideological energy, even as her cheery attitude belies deeper concerns about her romantic interests.  As Delphine’s mother, the great Lvovsky presents a richly ambiguous portrait of a woman divided between her affections and traditional values.  However, Higelin stands out as the movie’s true discovery.”- Eric Kohn, Indiewire

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