A country bumpkin in the excitement of the Olympics: The tragicomedy “A Summer in Paris” breathes the flair of the Games

She traveled from Normandy to Paris specifically to watch the Olympic swimming competitions. More specifically, to cheer on her secret crush, the swimmer Béryl Gastaldello, an athlete who even speaks openly about her occasional bouts of depression, which particularly impresses Blandine.

The city vibrates with lust for life

The unsuccessful entry is just the beginning of the bankruptcies, bad luck and mishaps that Blandine experiences in the city, which is literally overflowing with people. Olympic battlegoers from all over the world have arrived. There’s something going on on every corner, swarms of tourists holding cell phones in the air. Paris vibrates with lust for life in the summer heat. And right in the middle, or actually on the edge, the friendly but notoriously overwhelmed Blandine is finding her way.

Director Valentine Cadic, whose feature film debut “A Summer in Paris” premiered last year at the Berlinale in the Perspectives series for promising young directors, tells the story of the everyday yet magical educational journey of her main character, who is half nerd and half charming, in a naturalistic look, with quiet humor and beautifully underplayed emotionality.

Aside from the Olympic Games, the young woman, who is initially mistaken for a naive country bumpkin because of her shy demeanor, also wants to visit her half-sister Julie (India Hair). She hasn’t seen her for ten years and hasn’t even met Julie’s little daughter Alma.

Well-meaning as Blandine is, she lets the initially warm but then increasingly stressed Julie and her ex Paul take on childcare duties. And because Paul is an anti-Olympic activist, the incarnated innocence of Blandine also finds herself in a police operation.

This is one of two moments in which Blandine, who reacts unmoved to misfortunes and walks through the city with a lonely but unassailable composure, almost loses her composure.

Completely different than at night at the deserted swimming stadium, her longed-for place, which she only visited through a public screening after a few days in Paris. With the crepe in her hand, she meets Benjamin, a technician who is responsible for the electrics in the swimming pool and who has a key, in an economical dialogue. What a poetic magic the deep blue of a pool lying in the semi-darkness has.

A main character who reveals little about himself and is definitely odd, a city that finds little peace even at night during the Olympic Games, and summer – these combine in Valentine Cadic’s direction to form a harmonious, precisely observed triad.

None of what Blandine was looking for in Paris comes true just like that, and yet at the end of this summer week she is filled with the surprises that happen when you just let life go, stay friendly, approach people, trust them and see where it takes you. Maybe a miracle at dawn.