‘That Summer In Paris’ review: Tender debut plays out as the city hosts the 2024 Olympics

Dir: Valentine Cadic. France. 2025. 77mins

Valentine Cadic’s debut feature That Summer In Paris exhibits the delicate touch and light, airy manner that instantly evokes the cinema of Eric Rohmer. A woman’s holiday visit to the Paris Olympics unfolds with unexpected challenges and precious moments that combine to cast a bewitching spell. The brief running time suggests something slight, but Cadic invests her tale with rich emotion and dry, impish humour. New Story have the French rights to a film that should delight Francophile audiences internationally, although a more inspired English language title might help its chances elsewhere.

Cadic invests her tale with rich emotion and dry, impish humour

That Summer In Paris reunites Cadic with Blandine Madec, who starred in her short film The Summer Holidays (2023) where, like here, she also played a character called Blandine. This Blandine is a piano teacher from Normandy who arrives in Paris at the height of the 2024 Olympic Games. She intends to meet with her half sister Julie (India Hair) and her niece Alma (Lou Deleuze), but her only other concrete plan is to watch her favourite swimmer Beryl Gastaldello in action in the Olympic pool.

Blandine seems the very definition of someone who is alone in a crowd. She is a striking figure on the streets of Paris with her pink and sky blue rucksack, navy blue shorts and red t-shirt. Nothing seems to go her way as the bulky rucksack precludes her entry to the Olympics. Her spartan accommodation is a top bunk in the Saint Christopher’s Canal Hostel, where she is surrounded by the noise of brushing teeth, latecomers, nervous giggles and whispered conversations.

Madec’s Blandine is awkward and hesitant as she finds herself alone in the big city. Cinematographer Naomi Amarger makes the most of a bustling, sun-dappled Paris, capturing locations from the tourist sights of  the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame to graffiti-filled side streets and the area around Rosa Parks Station. Crowds fill the streets, giant outdoor screens broadcast the triumphs of swimmer Leon Marchand and there is a carnival atmosphere that already feels nostalgic. Cadic also captures opposing aspects of the Olympics as homeless people are cleared from the streets and protestors challenge the cost of the events.

Blandine eventually meets with Julie for the first time in a decade, which speaks volumes in itself. We start to learn a little more of her past, and the recent end of her five-year love affair with the unseen Caroline. Blandine seems to find it easier to speak with her eight year-old niece than any of the adults who enter her life. Conversations go on around her, but never seem to involve her. 

That Summer In Paris is all about human connection. Blandine enjoys magical moments with Julie and Alma as they spend a stifling hot night sleeping together on the balcony of Julie’s apartment, or head to the park for a birthday picnic with friends, Julie’s ex Paul (Matthias Jacquin) and golden retriever Coquillette. Blandine seems to share the characteristics of the dog – loyal, friendly and guileless. She also makes a sweet connection with electrician Benjamin (Arcadi Radeff).

Cadic and her writing partner Marietta Desert create moments of bone dry humour as Blandine finds herself arrested by the police and sets off along the streets of Paris with the misplaced confidence of Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot. There may be wistful, melancholy undertones to her character, but she is not a figure to pity. Her ability to be different from the crowd and true to herself makes the character and the film all the more tenderly appealing.