One Deadly Summer (1984)

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Blistering performances.

Finding her performances in The Story of Adele H and Deadly Circuit to be fabulous,I decided to check Isabelle Adjani's IMDb page. A huge fan of auteur Jacques Becker,I was excited to find that Adjani had worked with Jacques son Jean, which led to me looking forward to the Summer season.View on the film:Not making anything else until a segment in 1991's Lest We Forget,director Jean Becker shows here what could have been,with a highly distinctive style,that retains the elegance of his dad Jacques production, but is proudly it's own creation. Wiggling Elle into the Montecciari family life, Becker and his cinematographer brother Étienne give the first half a lush Erotic rural Drama atmosphere,with sharp outdoor lighting giving the many naked appearances of Elle a sensually-charged mood,and the warm,golden glow within the Montecciari household colouring the cold shoulders and snide remarks Elle gets from family members. Closely working with editor Jacques Witta,Becker undresses Elle's flirting with tightly-coiled editing that brings to light a mystery in her family life, that gains clarity with each note Elle hits on a secret that her parents have locked from her sight.Adapting his own novel,Sébastien Japrisot wonderfully draws each member of the Montecciari family with quirks that abrasively rub against Elle, from the hot and cold romance of Pin-Pon and the frozen glances from the mother, to the fragile attempt at friendship from a half-deaf relative. Gathering the pieces to Elle's family life, Japrisot displays an excellent maturity to the horrors inflicted on her family,with exchanges between Elle and her locked behind a door dad allowing Japrisot to peel open the psychological damage that the secret has had on Elle. Looking ravishing from her first appearance,Adjani gives an incredible performance as Elle,who is given a sexual swagger in the naked scenes,which keeps the mental fragility just underneath the skin during this one deadly Summer.

This is one of the most riveting films I've seen in a long time. Isabelle is captivating, flirtatious, beautiful, and the girlfriend from hell. I loved the dinner date. What an amazing scene. Isabelle is entirely convincing in all her moods from sexually flirtatious to depressed to passionate rage. This film is a virtuoso performance showcasing a great actress. In addition to great acting, she is simply gorgeous leaving you wanting to see more of her and this being a French film, one is not disappointed in that respect. The way the story unfolds forces one to pay attention to every little nuance. Sometimes its a bit corny like when they zoom in on her when she first asks about the organ in the barn, but overall the directing, acting, and cinematography are fabulous. I highly recommend this. To me the mark of a really good film is wanting to watch it again and getting a different understanding of scene each time you watch it. In part this is to get the point of the story. There are scenes that seem to be out of place like the scene in the forest, but everything fits together in the end. The first time I watched it I couldn't quite understand why she was so depressed when she found out that the revenge had already been done, but when I watched it again, it all made sense -- to find out that knowing that it was all done did not make her feel better; revenge does not solve ones problems. But it is too late, she has already set things in motion that make the ending ironic and tragic.

French cinema yet once again proved its brilliance through this tiny masterpiece. The film was to be described in one word, it would be 'Unpredictable', you never know what will be the next thing or what will be the next intention of a character will be. 'One deadly summer' is a film about characters you may or may not be familiar with in real life but you certainly will believe them. Isabelle Adjani is very precise and shines with excellence in her role, she gives one of her very best performances here. Alain Sounchon delivers a remarkable performance, and the chemistry between these two are beyond words. The film oozes with mystery every moment, though having situations very believable and genuine and the characters development is so strong, so deep, that you will be forced to see every situation from their individual perspectives. A film to look out for. Simply one of those few fine European films you cannot afford to avoid, undoubtedly a 9.8 out of 10!

The source of this film is a book of Sebastien Japrisot - a thriller author and script-writer who also directed a a few films by himself. After having seen the film directed by Jean Becker in 1983 I start to wonder whether it would not have been better in this case if Japrisot brought to screen his own novel.The whole film turns around Isabelle Adjani, By the time she made L'ete meurtrier Adjani was already at her 20th film or such and Truffault's 'L'Histoire d'Adele H'., or Polanski's 'Le locataire' were already behind her. Yet, she has in this film the freshness of a debutante and a sex-appeal that equals few films I have seen (Tornatore's 'Malena' with Monica Belucci comes to my mind). Adjani plays here the role of the victim and of the avenger, her beauty, changes of mood, suffering and mistakes make and destroy everything in the story and in the film itself.Seen through the perspective of almost three decades the story of the young girl seeking revenge for the rape of her mother may seem conventional and melodramatic. It is however very much into the style and approach not only of the classic French cinema but also of the literature - the characters seem to descend to us from the world of an Emile Zola, with their predestination of giving up to passion and with the tendency of making fatal, destinies breaking mistakes for the seek of love.If there is anything or anybody to blame for this film not really aging well despite Adjani's fabulous performance (seconded by Alan Souchon, an actor who seems to have all but disappeared after having made this film, and I have a hard time understanding why) I think it's the direction and the director. Similar material has created masterpieces if I am to think about films like 'La mariee etait en noir' - Jean Becker seems to have lacked the daring of taking a 'classical' story and using lesser conventional cinematographic means in order to make the story more credible. And yet, the film is worth seeing, even just for the pleasure of seeing Isabelle Adjani at her best.