O Último Verão

I had the pleasure (if not outright fun), together with several of my friends at Fire Island Ferries, of participating in the production of this film. It was a fairly compelling and accurate portrayal of the late-60's counter-culture. Fire Island was certainly THE place to be during those summers.

Post-production, we were given the opportunity to preview it at a local theater. It quickly received an "X" rating due the explicit "rape scene" which was abridged to earn the "R" it carried when released. I wonder what circulation it got before the editing and re-rating. Are there any copies of the original ?

Very intriguing late 60's film by Frank Perry with a great performance by Catherine Burns (nominated and SHOULD have won Supporting Actress). A young Barbara Hershey is attractive and full of verve. Bruce Davison is fine and Richard Thomas is sensitive and believable, but C. Burns as Rhoda is heartbreaking and wonderful. I don't know what happened to his young actress. She was also in RED SKY AT MORNING with Richard Thomas in '71.

An 8 out of 10. Best performance = Ms. Burns. A tale of youth that will stay with you. Nothing exploitive going on this film. Find it if you can. A beauty!

There's no plot, no apparent theme, and little action. And an hour into the movie, I'm still not sure where it's going. So why is the 90-minutes as riveting as I think it is. For one, the filmmakers begin with that interesting seagull sequence that provides insight into Sandy's (Hershey) manipulative character and the boys' general submissiveness.

However, in between the opening sequence and the final one, nothing much happens. Some scenes are overlong (the pot smoking, the hair washing), while the elliptical dialog is often punctuated by long, non- meaningful, pauses.

Nonetheless, the three hedonistic kids are attractive, fairly realistic, and found horsing around at a scenic beach. But then, chubby Rhoda arrives, with her needy, yet judgmental, attitude, and it's curious where things will go from there now that an outsider is watching them.

There's an undercurrent here, especially with Sandy, that's seductive. It's to the filmmakers credit, including the cast, that they manage to mesmerize with such spare elements. Oddly, the technique reminds me of the popular Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman— especially his Virgin Spring (1959).

I take the upshot as having to do with judgmental people who stand apart from the crowd and not being able to tolerate them. But however you take it, the movie avoids cliché (as others note) and continues to fascinate at a generally unspoken level. Too bad the Perry's didn't make more movies.

If you write screenplays, don't miss Catherine Burns's "speech" about her mother in Last Summer - a more powerful, evocative use of single-character dialogue in a film probably doesn't exist. While I enjoyed the rest of the film, it couldn't match this moment, and it's easy to see why CB was nominated for an Oscar.

You must see it uncut for the full effect. The conclusion at the beach is the whole point of the film, as Evan Hunter points out in his interview in "The Writer". I was agast the first time I saw it on commercial TV (late night).