Estate violenta

(1959) Violent Summer/ Estate violenta (In Italian with English subtitles) WAR DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Valerio Zurlini that refers to "Violent Summer" as a metaphor of WWII that serves as a backdrop here. The opening has Carlo Caremoli (Jean Louis Trintignant) returning back to the small town of Riccione where he is visiting his peers of Daniele (Giampiero Littera), Giulio (Bruno Carotenuto), Serena (Cathia Caro), Giorgio (Raf Mattioli) and the one who has a crush on Carlo is Rossana (Jacqueline Sassard) as they all do things together such as boating and hanging out at the beach. One day as soon as a war plane flies overhead, a young girl, we find out her name is Colomba becomes scared running up to Carlo's arms. Her mother, Roberta Parmesan (Eleonora Rossi Drago) then tries to reassure her daughter, and Carlo then offers to carry them to their home. And it was at this point he becomes infatuated with her as soon as he learns she is a widow. Roberta is slightly older than him, but he still insists on seeing her much often. And then her sister-in law, Maddalena (Federica Ranchi) and brother in law, Martino show up and are offered to stay with her and her mother. And it was the result that it was under war territory, and because Maddalena is about the same age as Carlo's peers, she decided to introduce her to them.

This love story set in a seaside town during Mussolini's Italy's last gasp has a lot of atmosphere and beautiful b/w cinematography, but the smoldering love story between the young J-L Trintignant and the initially reluctant older (30!) widow (the hauntingly beautiful Eleanora Rossi Drago--and why isn't she famous?)is convincing and memorable. See it if you can!

I just came back from the cinema after having seen the film. And all that comes to mind is -and forgive me for the level of my English- a simple ahhh! This was one of the best performances I have seen in terms of couple chemistry and the protagonist Eleonora Rossi Drago was just splendid! Pure unspoiled femininity coming out of every little move, gesture, look! The b/w photography, the directing and most of all Trintignan and Rossi Drago transform this erotic drama into a symphony of desire! And I can ask,rather bitterly, after all: where are women protagonists nowadays? And what has been done to the pure magic they radiated?

Jean-Louis Trintignat plays the draft-dodging son of a powerful Nazi in 1943 Italy, in a prelude to Bertolucci's "The Conformist," who falls in love with an older war widow, in an absolutely brilliant performance by Eleonora Rossi Drago, (what else has she ever been in?) featuring a brilliantly choreographed sequence to the song "Temptation," reminding me of Fassbinder's "The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant," this is one of the better scenes one is ever likely to see in all of cinema where the lovers dance and fall in love around a nude male statue oblivious to the war raging outside, similar to Oshima's "In the Realm of the Senses," there is an extraordinary pacing to the film, an intense love affair, reminiscent of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcock's "Notorious," this is a beautifully written, old-fashioned melodrama, the likes of which we just don't see any more.

I believe that there are movies, and movies... "Violent summer", in my modest opinion, it is one of those movies "outstanding." It is able to remain in the memory after 42 years, with some unforgettable Eleonora Rossi Drago and Jean Louis Trintignant. The music " live-motive" it created next to the rest of the sound band and the "light and shade" of the picture an overwhelming and captivating atmosphere. The protagonistic couple's election is decisive. The mature woman and the youth are achieved faultlessly. During years I was in love with that woman (I was 16 years old when I saw it). I believe that it is unjust to disqualify certain movies. There will always be who find defects of some type. And in any thing. Maximum when it is intangible things. But the feelings, the summer, the war like detonating., and the passion becomes tangible in this film. And that is undeniable. God willing it is re-published in the future for delight of us and of the new generations. Because the good cinema is much more than the critics of the specialist.