L'été meurtrier

More an Intelligent drama, with some violent overtones more than the "thriller" it's packaged as. This has more in common with "Rashomon" than with the latest slick action movie out of Hollywood.

Isabelle Adjani plays a young woman unhinged by the knowledge of her mother's brutal rape by 3 men years earlier, and she has built her life around seeking revenge. The film's most striking aspect is the use of multiple switching narrators, so we see the tale unfold from several points of view.

Adjani, as always, has a tremendous emotional rawness, but for me the performance (and the writing) wears its heart a little too much on it's sleeve. I wish she wasn't so clearly crazy much of the time. Or that more people seemed to notice just how blatantly manipulative her behavior is.

The pace is very slow, which worked a lot of the time, but I did find myself frustrated at moments.

But all that said, this is an interesting experiment in telling a complex story, with strong performances all around. And if it occasionally falls into melodrama, it also is full of moments that are disturbing, moving and shocking.

"Eliane becomes the talk of the town for her sultry, uninhibited sensuality, and takes a fancy to Pin-Pon with an ulterior motive (the family piano left by Pin-Pon's father plays a key role in ascertaining the identities of those base sex offenders). But underneath her free-spirited, come-hither deportment, the weight of this unspeakable secret often prompts her into paroxysms of mood-swings (punctuated by past memories and harrowing experiences), which act like yellow flags to Pin-Pon of her mental instability. That said, no heterosexual men can possibly resist the allure of a primetime Adjani, soon Eliane moves into Pin-Pon's dwelling, with his widowed mother Madame Montecciari (Clève), his semi-deaf auntie Cognata (Flon, delectably sagacious and breezy) and his two younger brothers, Mickey (a 28-year-old Cluzet, then a fresh-faced dreamboat, acting with great facility) and Boubou (Gélin)."

read the full review on my blog: cinema omnivore, thanks

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.

L'Ete Meurtrier is a very complex, cleverly constructed film, well acted, written and directed. For me, one of the cleverest features is the fact that a number of characters take their turn at narration.

Although Adjani puts in a very good performance, in my opinion the best performance is by Suzanne Flon, who plays the pivotal role of Cognata.

The flashback scenes are not wholly convincing for me - they do not even begin to suggest that the action is taking place twenty years previously.

Perhaps my favourite scene, is the one where Eliane sits outside her father's locked door and cries "tu est mon pere!" - this scene is well acted by Adjani - the viewer can almost feel her anguish.

Overall, an excellent film which can be watched over and over again. In fact, one needs to watch it a few times to appreciate all the twists and turns in the plot.

Isabelle Adjani gives a brilliant, instinctive performance (and she also has several showstopping nude scenes, I might add) as an animalistic, untamed young sexpot who seeks vengeance on the three men that raped her mother 20 years ago. In the first few minutes, the film seems a bit confusing and pointless, but gradually reveals itself to be a multi-layered story with quite a few twists along the way. "One Deadly Summer" deserves more attention (but is difficult to find). (***)