Late August, Early September (1998) poster
1998 · drama

Late August, Early September

Directed by Olivier Assayas1h 52m1998
ElsewhereIMDb6.82kRT79%Metacritic70TMDB5.948
  • sombre
  • slow-burn
Movie DNA

Sombre, slow-burn, measured drama, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

A book editor juggles relationships with two women while coping with his best friend's terminal illness.

Our read · Late August, Early September (1998) reads as a sombre, slow-burn, grounded drama entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Late August, Early September

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a nuanced French drama about relationships, friendship, and coping with illness and change.

ends bittersweetit stays with yousteady all the waygrips by minute 15attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightYou need strong plot momentum or upbeat romantic comedy instead of slice-of-life.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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