Avaliações de usuários

In a nutshell, one summer two young British women from different classes meet and befriend one another, and eventually their relationship gets romantic. That may not sound terribly original, but the way it's executed here by director Pawel Pawlikowski is lovely, and this film has a lot going for it. It's also not as predictable as it may seem.

Natalie Press and Emily Blunt are both brilliant in the lead roles, and easily make this film worth seeing. The moments when Press imitates the devil and when she shows Blunt how a man shags her are priceless. So is seeing Blunt playing the cello and their dancing scene to Goldfrapp's dreamy 'Lovely Head.' The pair have a physical relationship but I liked how restrained Pawlikowski was in showing this. There are wonderful scenes of them disappearing into the flowers and sitting in front of the firelight in silhouette, but what they say and do never feels cliché.

Meanwhile, the patriarchy is on display via the hypocritical brother who has "found God," the backstory of the father who's abandoned the family, and the guy who cheats on his wife with a young woman and then ruthlessly discards her. The film is saying something about men and women here, but it's also saying something about class. I won't spoil it, but the ending is fantastic. At 86 minutes long, it was the perfect length too.

First of all, the young leads Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt acted superbly; these newcomers are really stunning for the way they movingly played this character drama, showing every sort of emotion a human being may feel. "My summer of love" is not only a lesbian love affair between two needy and sexy teens, set in a beautiful countryside, but it's also a thoughtful portrayal of friendship, deception and obsession. In spite of a story starting as an erotic drama it finally turns into a suspenseful and powerful situation. Last but not least Paddy Considine is also up to the film brightness, rendering a man whose redemption seems to slowly fade.

I really enjoyed this film. I especially liked the langour of its pacing (helped by a wonderful soundtrack), certainly at the start where we simply observe the girls hanging out together drinking copious amounts of red wine and smoking constantly. Something about the timelessness, the heaviness of the heat, the bird song and buzzing insects caught perfectly that summer after 'A' levels where there is nothing to do but simply live, spend time with friends, and fantasies can take on a larger and more defined shape than realities. The 'lesbian' angle was handled deftly - though as another user commented, it would be good to see a film which manages to trace the intensity of female adolescent friendships without having them be sexual in nature - but this is a very special time, and the film caught that beautifully. The poignancy of Mona's existence was undersold as well, which gave it a greater power - she is the one who has truly suffered loss, whereas Tamsin... well, you have to make up your own mind about that. A minor film, but hits its notes perfectly.

Beautifully acted and gorgeously filmed, this movie had all the makings of a great combination coming-of-age story slash love story, but it encountered the same problem so many other almost-great movies (Rain Man, anyone?) have: it has no ending...it just...stops. Naturally the climax is the most difficult story element to envision and pull off, but come on, you gotta put in a little more effort than this. The film's third act contains some delightful twists, which seem to set the stage for a powerful ending, but it seems like the filmmakers simply ran out of ideas, or couldn't agree on one. Still worth your time, for the fantastic performances of Emily Blunt (remember that name!!) and the always reliable Paddy Considine, not to mention the lead (I forgot her name), but it just leaves such a bad taste in your mouth when a movie comes this close to being great.

I wanted to see this movie for a long time. I recently finally got the chance to see it and although it was a good movie, it was not the must-see I heard it was and I expected it to be. This movie was praised at all kinds of festivals and website's that are respectable and thrust worthy when it comes to the 'better smaller'-, mainly European movies. Needless to say that my expectations were high, maybe a bit too high. "My Summer of Love" feels like a fabricated movie that is all too aware of its own style, which makes the movie feel forced and too artificially made at certain moments.

The story and premise are good enough. The story feels very pure and the two main characters are good enough to carry the entire movie on their own, which they also get to do. I don't know, for some reason movies with a 'lesbian' love-story always feel so much purer and perhaps sweeter than any other love-stories.

So it's not really the story that is the problem but it really is the way it is told. "My Summer of Love" is directed by a Polish director and made by a mostly English crew. It has European style written all over it, especially when it comes down to its cinematography (shakycam, sudden zooms). The cinematography all feels too forced and planned. It's not pure enough and it's all very calculated. The cinematography of the nature and the more 'quiet' sequences are good and the capture a nice mood but for 70% of the movie the cinematography simply feels too fabricated. The way of cinematography doesn't feel necessary and it doesn't add enough to the movie. It feels like its only used to make this movie distinct itself from the more 'Hollywood' way of film-making. At times it feels like they wanted every sequence to be pure poetry.

The movie also feels incomplete. All of the sequences are too short and they end abruptly. The movie has some interesting plot-lines in it but the sequences are handled in are too short to make a lasting impression. I wanted to see and learn more about certain plot-lines and characters but the sequences were over before I fully realized what happened and what was going on with the characters. This is also the reason why this movie only is 86 minutes short. The movie doesn't cover enough of the story and because of that the movie feels incomplete and perhaps at times makes a dull and a too simple impression. Because it's all 'too short', the movie never really knew how to capture and set the right mood, of the boring country life in a small English town. It was not like I didn't understood or 'got' this movie, it was just that I wasn't grabbed by it all and it didn't made a lasting impression on me.

The ending also didn't really came as a surprise. The movie constantly gave me the feeling that something wasn't 'right', so I expected a twist at the ending, which also came. So even though the ending itself wasn't predictable, the build up to it still was.

The acting is quite good and pure. Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt are good enough as the two young leading ladies but what will they be doing in 10 years from now? Probably not acting. They are pure but they aren't really actresses. But for this movie that's OK really. I mean that probably also was the reason why they were cast in the first place.

I know I'm probably sounding too negative and harsh but that simply is because the movie just wasn't as good as I heard it was and I expected it to be. The movie is still good and pure enough to please the fans of 'European' cinema but too many moments in the movie feel too fabricated. I probably make the movie sound worser than it is, so please if you're into this sort of movies, watch this one as well. It's a movie worth seeing that still has plenty to offer its viewers.

It's a good movie but not the best example of recent good and pure European film-making.

7/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

In this day and age it would appear that films that are British made now need a certain Hollywood endorsement or require to be set in chic surroundings in order for it to be considered a triumph. One wet, dreary Glasgow's summer night I stumbled upon this in the video shop and having heard much about I chanced my luck and got it out. On previous occasions I had the opportunity but the subject matter I had found to be off putting. This film is an art-house masterpiece displaying an unusual relationship between a working class girl living in a dull rural town and an upper class private school girl. The film is capturing as you watch their relationship develop towards an ending which is perfectly summed up as bitter sweet. The lead performances are excellent and Paddy Considine is outstanding as the reformed alcoholic turned Christian. This film deserves to be seen by many and warrants much of the praise it gained. Also it gave new hope to many who felt that Britain's days as a great country to make films were over. Rating: Simply excellent

My Summer of Love is a brave, sincere film, which gives us, cinema-lovers, the hope that cinema is not dead and is not only a money-making entertainment machine whatever the cost. It looks hard into life of today, but this look is not to frighten, to scare, to scandalize - I'd call it poetic realism, in the best traditions of cinema, when its great masters were not afraid to experiment, but only strive for true presentation of their idea and of their characters. It is also a film about love, because it is done with so much love for people who follow their heart, and who value their openness and freedom of expressing themselves. Highly artistic work of it's author Pavel Pavlikovski, and also of actress Natalie Press, whom I was happy to see at the Sofia Film Fest, at the Bulgarian premiere of the film on 11 March 05.

This is a charming film. A pretty simple story of two slightly dysfunctional girls who meet by chance and become drawn to each other, who fall in love through the summer vacation, who have fun together and then, inevitably, part, is brought totally to life by the charismatic performances of the two young leads. The film looks gorgeous, shot in the beautiful Yorkshire moors, and the direction is sharp. This film is a near perfect rendition of an oft told tale of growing pains and confused adolescent feelings and is so delightfully rendered as to make any further comment superfluous. To see it is to love it! Go see.

My Summer of Love, as the title implies, is about a romance during the summer holidays. Perhaps one of the draws of this movie in release now in Singapore, is indirectly from the popularity of The Devil Wears Prada, with Emily Blunt playing the role of an uncooperative, bullying colleague to Anne Hathaway's Andrea. Yet another GLBT movie to hit our shores (somehow I think lesbian love films make it here more frequently than gay ones?), this movie, based on a novel written by Helen Cross, and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, has won the BAFTA award for Best British Film, amongst other movie awards.

The protagonist is Mona (Nathalie Press), a young orphaned girl on the verge of losing her brother Phil (Paddy Considine) to his rediscovery of Christianity. They own a bar, but with his turn for the supposed better, he has converted their joint to a meeting place for his cell group of reborn Christians. Lonely, she chances upon Tamsin (Emily Blunt), a girl back from boarding school for the holidays, and the two soon strike up a fast friendship.

It makes you wonder how one develops feelings for members of the same sex, or if such harbouring of feelings is innate in the first place. Mona becomes the surrogate sister of Tamsin, who is a typical poor pitiful rich girl looking for thrills, who had lost her own sister, and found a substitute in Mona. Coming from families who seemingly don't care for them, their hanging out together draws them closer to each other.

Much of the movie shows this development of friendship into something more, of the forging of friendship amongst lonely people, and devotes much screen time to this. However, there is another side observation on a separate theme, and that's of religion. I found that this film bold in its depiction of the hypocrisy amongst men who assume they have godly powers over mere mortals, and how their bigoted views often seem misguided. It doesn't mince its message on speaking in tongues, or having the Lord speak through oneself in the judgement of others.

Of course it's always tough being the good and holy person, given sinners are we all, but there are plenty of scenes in this movie that probably suggests that there is always a veil of hypocrisy surrounding those who use the name of the Lord in vain. Through Phil, we see how hard he tries to be accepted back to society, how hard he tries to imagine that he has changed for the better because of his devotion to religious cause, and how easy it is to fall back into the path which totally contradicts every well-meaning effort trying to change oneself.

On a lighter note, there is a little hint of mystery that nags you throughout the film about possible deception. And with the twist revealed at the end, it somehow makes your blood boil a bit, never mind if you don't swing for the same side. Perhaps sometimes, it's always best to heed advice from blood which is always thicker than water, or stick to the notion that summer flings should always begin and end as the season comes and goes.

Pretty much everything has been said about this film from +ve and -ve points of view, except to comment on the incredibly accurate portrayal of the Christians in this film.

The prayer meetings and the singing could have been lifted straight from many evangelical Anglican churches at the moment. I was so impressed that they had tried hard to get an accurate and balanced portrayal, walking a very difficult line letting the viewer bring their own opinions and interpretations of evangelical Christianity to the film. It makes a change for anyone to go to that much trouble to get it right. I would love to know who advised on these scenes!

Pavel Pavlikovski directed the bleak, austere 'Last Resort', and was sacked from 'Sylvia' on grounds of having an insufficiently commercial sensitivity.

Now he had made 'My Summer of Love', a nicely observed tale of a teenage lesbian romance. As in 'Last Resort', Russian-born Pavlikovski paints an enticingly skewed picture of Britain that rings true in spite of its aberrence; and gets good performances out of his cast, especially Paddy Considine as the brother of one of the girls, who could certainly have used more screen-time, though his co-stars Nathalie Press and Emily Blunt are also good. The film steers clear of cliché, and has some dryly funny dialogue, but what it lacks is a sense of time as a continuum: it feels like a semi-random sampling of its characters' lives, and although there is a clear plot it's hidden in the background, apparent only later. In some ways, this is also true to life, but it also means that the film remains low-key right up to the moment of its suddenly dramatic conclusion. Pavlikovski also seems surprisingly keen on static location shots (before we see the characters inside of a house, we always see the house from outside),

which jars slightly given the film's general artistic merits. Distinctive, and well-worth watching, 'My Summer of Love' isn't quite a great film; but it is an interesting effort from a director committed to representing life in the ways that Hollywood never does.

Such a beautiful film , the cinematography is marvelous, emily's Acting is superb and I find the plot intersting . One of Emily's best performances

For anyone conversant with the English class system and the clichés surrounding it, this movie unfolds with the inevitability of a train wreck, but you watch it anyway to see what the final smash up will be like. Here we have a bored, intelligent, manipulative rich girl and an angry, intelligent poor girl who is smart enough the see that her life is a dead end but has no idea how to escape from it. Guess which one takes the relationship seriously and gets hurt, and which one is simply using it for entertainment. Hint -- never expect anything good from a character in a movie, especially a teen-aged character, who quotes Nietzsche with approval. The end is inevitable, but there are some interesting surprises along the way, including one moment of genuinely suspenseful uncertainty, and the three principal actors inhabit the roles believably.

--SPOILER

One interesting twist is the movie's surprisingly sympathetic perspective on fundamentalist Christianity. For all the apparent disdain heaped upon the born again zeal of Mona's brother by both girls, we ultimately see that it has kept his self-loathing rage in check, and that he is a better person when he has faith than when he has been irresponsibly seduced into losing it.

I translated this film for the Budapest GLBT cultural festival. So I expected something that would show lesbian love in a positive light. Instead, this was a rather depressing feature about a teenage friendship which turned into a love affair "by chance". Someone comparing it to Heavenly Creatures had a point. Lesbianism is presented here as an escape from the sordid reality of the girls' (especially Mona's) life.

Not that we see much of these lives, though. This was my major problem with the film. It was based on a novel which was clearly autobiographical, and some points got lost on the way. What part did the zealot brother play in the story? And Tamsin's parents? What was the point in the religious procession, and why was it important to include? Where are Mona's parents? A lot of questions that aren't answered. The two actresses are really superb, but they seem to exist in a void, without an even slightly realistic environment. Maybe this is how the author felt at the time of this happening, but it doesn't make a film. At least not a good one.

I enjoyed this film as it asks questions about life, Society and Religion in an unconventional Way. Mona and Tam fall in love one summer.

Press plays Mona, bored to tears with life in provincial Yorkshire, and especially bored with her brother Phil (Paddy Considine) who is a reformed violent criminal and born-again Christian now righteously pouring away the stocks of booze in the pub owned by their late parents, and re-purposing this place of sin as a prayer center. Then she meets Tamsin (Emily Blunt), a kindred spirit despite being outrageously posh, who's rusticated from her private girls' school, and whose neglectful parents let her have the run of their magnificent Tudor family home. Mona explains that her name is actually Lisa, but her habit of complaining got her the nickname "Moaner" Lisa, from her brother, back in the days when he had a sense of humor. Tamsin's enigmatic response is simply to drawl: "I've studied the original." But as I said you do not have to be Lesbian to enjoy this wonderful film. Many people go through life asking themselves who they are? Where do they live and what do they believe in.

You get what you expect with this film. You get love, and you get summer fun. The story is about two girls trying to escape their troubled family life and explore things together. Emily Blunt is always good, and I was pleased with Natalie Press' performance as well. Besides the fact this is a lesbian based relationship, you actually get a true romance to go along with it. I understand for some people, the idea of this love is offsetting but the film depicts it more as summer fun then a dissection of lesbian lovers.

I have to say it's pretty predictable, and there isn't as much depth to it as I would have thought. But considering this is basically Emily Blunt's first starring role, I think it's worth the watch. Mona and Tamsin did play well off each other, much props to both the actresses for going beyond what a typical actor would do. I'm sure it takes guts to do this type of role, especially early on in their careers. The film isn't anything special, but it does give you 85 minutes of summer. And to me, it's always good to step away from life for a few hours and enjoy a different lifestyle than your own. I really like the movies that send you to a different part of the world and give you more insight into what life is like other places. I wasn't thrilled with the plot overall and the ending could have been handled better.

But because of the great lead performances, and the nice feel of summer the film gives you, I think it is a worthy watch. Especially for film buffs, and big fans of Emily Blunt.

+Emily Blunt shines

+Summer fun

-Not enough depth to the story

7.2/10