A Burning Hot Summer
Un été brûlant
France, Switzerland, Italy
2011
95 Min
Color
2.35:1
French, Italian
Synopsis
On a burning summer’s night, a sports car crashes headlong into a tree.
The previous year… Paul meets the painter Frédéric through a mutual friend. Frédéric lives in Italy with Angèle, the actress with whom he is deeply in love. While working as an extra, Paul befriends an assistant – Roland and falls in love with Elisabeth, another extra.
Frédéric invites Paul and Elisabeth to stay in Rome. He shows Paul a photo of the grandfather who raised him and, during dinner, introduces Roland to Angèle, who seems troubled by his presence. Later, in a hotel, Angèle sleeps with Roland. Time passes. Angèle leaves Frédéric.
Elisabeth falls pregnant with Paul’s child. Frédéric seeks a divorce. Paul and Elisabeth leave Rome. Elisabeth’s baby is born. When Paul meets Frédéric by chance in Paris, the painter tells him that Angèle and Roland have broken up. That night, Paul is woken by a phone call: Frédéric has had a terrible accident….
As he lies delirious in hospital, the ghost of his grandfather appears to Frédéric. When Paul arrives, the painter confides that the crash was no accident: without Angèle, life has become unbearable. Paul leaves, and Frédéric dies. On a burning summer’s day, in a small village churchyard, Paul watches as his friend’s body is laid to rest. –Wild Bunch
Director
Philippe Garrel
Philippe Garrel is a French director, cinematographer, screenwriter, editor and producer. His movies have won him awards at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. He was born in Paris in 1948, the son of actor Maurice Garrel. He started his film career early directing and writing his first film Lés Enfants Désaccordés in 1964. Garrel met Nico in 1969 when she performed the song “The Falconer” for his film Le Lit de la Vierge and the couple were soon living together. Nico first appeared in the 1972 film La Cicatrice Intériure (aka the Inner Scar). Songs included in the film appear on Nico’s album Desertshore, which features stills from the film on the front and back covers. Nico appeared in a number of Garrel’s films after this. Their ten year relationship ended in 1979.
Prix Jean Vigo for the film L’Enfant Secret. He won Perspectives du Cinéma Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984 for his 1983 film la Nuit Liberté. Over a ten year period, Garrel enjoyed… read more
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DT
26Nov12
Facile tedium. One can be sure at least of Bellucci’s radiance - Garrel Jr.’s as dulling as his father, on the other side of his torpid bourgeois-artiste lens. It finds a pulse by its second half, mercifully - graspable, palpable emotions, interplay, served straight; barely enough to resuscitate.
Pedro Franceschini
8Aug12
It's "easier" than Garrel's last movies but not exactly better. Even though I was waiting a lot from the couple Garrel/Bellucci, I think the most interesting moments are delivered by Garrel and Robart characters in their talks (making me think that behind the obvious crazy-love-story there's an interesting movie about friendship).
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Articles
Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
Dancing in Philippe Garrel's "A Burning Hot Summer"
By Notebook on June 28, 2012
Partying to Dirty Pretty Things’ “Truth Begins” and featuring Monica Bellucci, this is another of Garrel’s unforgettable dance sequences.
The Noteworthy: LOLA, "Margaret", Bresson, Postcards from the Cinema
By Adam Cook on June 20, 2012
This week: LOLA Issue 2 debuts, B. Kite & Kent Jones on Robert Bresson, and a chronicle of Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret misfortunes.
First Look 2012. Supplementary Roundup
By David Hudson on January 9, 2012
Overviews of the Museum of the Moving Image series: 13 features and seven shorts, nearly all of them New York premieres.
First Look 2012
By Jesse Cataldo on January 6, 2012
A guide to New York’s new film festival of overlooked treasures playing at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.
Daily Briefing. Cahiers du Cinéma's Top Ten of 2011
By David Hudson on December 5, 2011
And more year-end lists from New York and the Guardian. Plus: Sony vs the New Yorker.
Venice 2011. Those Who Burn Within
By Daniel Kasman on September 6, 2011
Philippe Garrel’s new film, in competition at Venice, miscasts its two leads but features a turn by a French actress that cannot be missed.
Venice and Toronto 2011. Philippe Garrel's "That Summer"
By David Hudson on September 3, 2011
So far, there’s little but disappointment across the board in this latest color feature from Garrel.
Anticipating Venice 2011 — and Cannes 2012
By David Hudson on May 25, 2011
Last week, right in the middle of the Cannes Film Festival, when half the world's film journalists were taking in the new Terrence Malick and
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Love's Labour's Lost
By Ogier de Beauseant on December 10, 2012
Un été brûlant A Burning Hot Summer 2011
Garrel and son serve up this melodrama that lacked only weeping violins to conjure up a tragic tale of a love discarded. It is said… read review
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