Heißer Atem

About a year and a half ago, I was browsing my favorite video stores drama section(ya know the kinds of stores who carry all low budget titles on their catalog listings), and I came across this film. I liked the description and it reminded me alot of Last Tango In Paris, so I tucked it under my arm with my other releases brought it home and watched the other three films first. It was around 2 am and I put this in....the first 5 minutes drew me in hook line and sinker: there is no sound just pleaseing mood music as a shroud of quick cuts display a beautiful woman lying in a pool of blood with images of her past playing out before the viewer...no smart perceptive dialogue, no state of panic...just beautiful images. The film then begins and it could all go downhill from here...but it does'nt..this woman is fully aware of the constant daily grind of life and the annoying people that inhabit it...so she gets up in her hospital gown, witnesses a dying old woman and then leaves town...no destination, no cause. What progresses then is basically alot of sex and insightful, yet not overly cocky insights into life, love, death, and isolation between a dim witted drifter whom she meets in an almost ghost town.

The astonishing thing about this film is that it is perfectly aware of its characters problems, yet it doesnt bore us with the details....they meet, they do the most logical thing and have sex constantly in an abondoned house...they state their cuases...and then try to conform somewhat to the outside world by the films great ending. I love this person. She wants to be alone and she wants to be isolated. Combined with stunning imagery and camera work...even if u mute the sound..u still feel the isolation and quiet moodiness of the film..compared to Last Tango..this film is much better.Tango is loud it is repellent unsenseibly..this film is bright, evocative and mildly entertaining...it shouldnt be entertaining however.

If only more films like this could be made....better yet..no..this is a one of a kind...maybe only meant for the people who find it wipe the dust off of it and give it a try. I watch it every once in a while...when the wind is blowing and im alone.

Although given short shrift by the few critics who watched it, this is a worthy effort, marked by good acting, direction, technicals, and an intelligent script. Although in a state of undress through much of the film, Kelly Lynch is given an opportunity to display the full panoply of her acting range as there are essentially only two actors. And, as so often with independent films, all involved have an opportunity to be truly creative. The desert setting enhanced the starkness of the extreme emotions to which the viewer is exposed.

Barbie is sad. Ken is sad. Together they are happy, and Ken

teaches Barbie to love life.

The pretentious script, constantly sounding like it's imparting

pop-psychology wisdom is made doubly silly when it comes out in

monologues from such incompetent actors, who can't even be

convincing in the less-demanding, non-verbal, gratuitous sex

scenes.

Insipid, sappy, and shallow, Warm Summer Rain can't hold a

candle to Ordinary People, to which it had been favorably

compared. The themes are also completely different, with the

exception of the theme of suicide.

Avoid at all costs. 2/10

More play than film, "Warm Summer Rain", is an obtuse character study of two troubled people who manage to spend a great deal of time naked, having sex. There are moments that are more akin to an acting class exercise than a real motion picture. Too much of the time we see the actors acting.

This film is very derivative. It borrows from many sources including "Last Tango In Paris", "The Terminator", "The Chase", the works of Eugene O'Neill and William Saroyan.

Although you can applaud the courage of Kelly Lynch and Barry Tubb, there is very little to admire here in a dramatic way. As a rental, I would barely recommend it.

Warm Summer Rain brings to us feelings we have all experienced... isolation, hopelessness, bewilderment, doubt... and opens a vein of self-examination that asks basically... why? Why me, why life, why love?

In seeking meaning and purpose in the midst of social disparity, the couple exploits a temporary pseudo-marriage relationship that allows them intensity. If the dialogue, the feelings, and the interactions sometimes seem awkward, it is in keeping with the ages of the characters...

Coming to us in the middle of what some called the ME generation, this film addresses those issues along with post-sixties sexuality and frankness. This has long been one of my favorite Art films and each time I see it I find new symbolism.

I swear I have been in several bars identical to the one at the beginning of the movie, and their abandoned house was where I began my own married life. When Kelly Lynch mentions the longing she wakes up with each morning, I know just what she means.

So here we have a damsel in distress, a Don Quixote sent to rescue her, some amazing sets, props, characters, and dialogue, and all the elements of a great myth... the conflict, the descent of the hero into the underworld, and the redemption. What else could we hope for?

A dance with a five-legged Iguana, that's what.

Don't miss this humorous, delightful, thought-provoking movie.

* Films similar to this one: Local Hero, The Swimmer (Burt Lancaster), Where the Heart Is (Natalie Portman), Amalie, Harold & Maude.