"Summerfield" has an intriguing story with excellent actors, a great sense of place and loads of atmosphere.
From reading some of the reviews here, it is apparent that the film wasn't well received by the critics at the time. However, forty years later, it is removed from all the influences that may have coloured a critic's judgement.
The thing that surprised me was how fresh it seems - the remote setting gives it a timeless quality - it hasn't dated much beyond the makes of cars, a few 70's hairstyles and the absence of mobile phones and Xboxes. It also shows the maturity that Australian films had achieved after the more strident efforts of the 60's and early 70's.
Simon Robinson, played by Nick Tate - a Robert Redford lookalike especially when shirtless - arrives in the small seaside town of Bannings Beach as a replacement for a teacher who has mysteriously disappeared.
He senses that the townspeople are hiding something about the disappearance, and feels that many of them are wary of his presence. When Simon accidentally injures Sally Abbott, a pupil from his school played by Michelle Jarman, he becomes acquainted with her mother, Jenny Abbott and her uncle, David Abbott, who own a property on secluded Summerfield Island. Elizabeth Alexander, whose ethereal quality was just right for this movie, plays Jenny Abbott. John Waters as David Abbott, exudes an underlying sense of menace.
Simon continues to search for clues about his predecessor's disappearance while becoming more attracted to Jenny. Eventually, after a shock finale, he learns all the answers, but wishes he hadn't.
The early part of the movie reminded me a little of "The Wicker Man" - even the name Summerfield is reminiscent of Summerisle, the setting for that classic horror movie of 1973. Although the stories have different resolutions, and the similarities are no doubt coincidental, both films start with a stranger arriving in a remote location, a disappearance, and inhabitants who seem to share a secret. Even the sexual temptation by the hotel manager's wife in the case of "Summerfield" has similarities with the encounter with the landlord's daughter in "The Wicker Man".
But the similarities end there, "Summerfield" heads off to it's own surprising and tragic conclusion.
The movie benefits from Bruce Smeaton's score. He was a very experimental composer with an amazing range. An Aeolian harp, which works as an acoustic wind chime, and other stringed instruments including a bouzouki, all find a place in the score, which also features a lilting main theme.
This is a movie that has shed whatever baggage worried the critics all those years ago - it is simply a beautifully made film that holds your attention from start to finish.
