Tu Dors Nicole - one long summer to figure things out.... when you'd really rather not.

Nicole is a 20 something living at her parents, passing the summer with a boring job. her parents are away on holiday but her peace and quiet is interrupted when her older brother decides this will be the location all summer for band practice. Nicole has a new credit card and just has to make it through a few weeks more until she goes to Iceland on holiday with her best friend Veronique.  And, bar a very funny sub plot about the young boy she babysits, is about the sum of the plot. Of course there is much more to this interesting and funny film than that.

Tu Dors Nicole is shot in black and white and has few period clues to give any idea about when in the last 20 years it is set. This contributes to a more universal feeling of a girl drifting through her early 20s, probably deep down realising that life can't stay like this forever but trying to hold on for at least one more summer.  Summer is stuffy, slow and hot, and time meanders on.  The film frequently fades to black at the end of a scene which gives the film an episodic feel and adds ot the sense of time slowly ticking over and ebbing away.The film really does capture that feeling of a long summer when there is not much to do, but enough time to do anything you can find. 

Reviews I read before the festival made some comparisons to Frances Ha, and it doesn't quite live up to that, just because Nicole is quite as interesting a character as Frances. But Julianne Cote does give an excellent performance with what she has to work with. the film is gently winding its way to a minor explosion and Cote's performance is what takes us there in a believable way, and stops Nicole from become irritating or unsympathetic.

The soundtrack is awesome too, mixing with stylish cinematography for a film that is down to earth, relaxed, wry and cool, just like Nicole.