10h.30 du soir en été

An interesting film that still looks good after almost half a century. It's the kind of adult entertainment that demands thinking on the part of the audience. The story is the usual Marguerite Duras bubbameister masquerading as an incisive analysis of a troubled marriage. The film runs only 85 minutes; any longer and it would wear out its welcome. Beautifully photographed in a small Spanish town and countryside, with some exciting glimpses of Madrid toward the end, it's a triumph of visual style. The three principal actors (Melina Mercouri, Peter Finch, Romy Schneider) all look great, especially Mercouri, who at 45 never looked better. Husband director Jules Dassin here captured her at her peak. Peter Finch for a time just about cornered the market on these adult dramas ("The Pumpkin Eater," "In the Cool of the Day," "I Thank a Fool," "Sunday Bloody Sunday"). Plus, this trio can act, which makes all the pointless posturing and dialog seem more important than it is. I particularly like the enigmatic ending (shades of Antonioni's "L'Avventura"). "10:30 PM Summer" has enough merits to warrant seeking out this seldom-seen curiosity.

I'm totally jealous of Romy Schneider. Not only did she get to act in this extremely steamy movie with Peter Finch, but she also had an offscreen affair with the extremely sexy German actor, Curd Jurgens. I guess she was a magnet for guys who should have been cast as Captain Von Trapp.

Romy plays the friend of Melina Mercouri, a paranoid lush. For some reason, Melina has invited Romy to go on a trip with her and her husband, Peter, even though she knows there's sexual tension between them. When Melina drinks herself into a stupor, she sees (or imagines) the two trying to keep their hands off each other - until they can't. This movie features the first explicit sex scene I've seen in a Hollywood movie, chronologically. Prior to 1966, a scene like this would never have been filmed with major actors and shown in mainstream theaters. In addition to the gratuitous nature of the scene, and the graphic details, there's also female nudity and oral sex. I guess we know now why Peter Finch wasn't in The Sound of Music. Captain Von Trapp wouldn't do those things.

A side plot of 10:30 P. M. Summer (or is it the main plot and it's just hard to pay attention to it?) is Melina's obsession with a murderer on the lam. She imagines what it would be like to meet him, then she finds him, and she thinks it's exciting to help him. Why? I don't know. Why does she drink and pretty much encourage her husband to sleep with her friend? I don't know. Why watch this movie? Well, we all know the answer to that one.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sex scenes, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. During the scene when they go to a flamenco club, the camera is handheld like a documentary to show "realism". Also, during the sex scene, the camera swirls around in a big circle, and it will make you sick. And whenever Melina has a fantasy, it shows her POV in a handheld camera. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

Melina Mercouri was absolutely delightful in Never on a Sunday. Then I saw Phaedra and she worked my last nerve. It wasn't her fault. It was a terrible script and badly miscast. It did have high camp value. The love scenes were so bad they decided it best to film through fogged up Windows.

I started watching this film and Mercouri started to bug again. This time it really wasn't her fault. She plays an unhinged dypso. Melina has to carry the entire film. Finch and Schneider do nothing but have extremely dull love scenes. The child's voice is badly ovetdubbed. The kid sounds like a cartoon character.

The filming locations, sets and ambiance of the film are beautiful. The script and acting stink to high heaven.

Unfortunately, this is one of the most underrated films in movie history. As a matter of fact, it's almost forgotten nowadays, because it was a flop when it came out in 1966.

Jules Dassin's fourth film with his wife, Melina Mercouri, is a slow-moving, poetic love triangle: Maria and Paul, a couple in their forties, travel through Spain with a mutual friend, Claire (played by Romy Schneider), and their daughter. On their way to Madrid, they come through a village where a man has just shot both his wife and her lover. Maria, who has realized that her relationship with Paul has changed, wants to help the murderer...

One of the most surprising twists in the plot is the lesbian relationship between Maria and Claire. Maria wants to catch Claire in Paul's arms, and in a delirious state of mind she dreams about it. The scene in the shower with Mercouri and Schneider is pretty unexpected, though.

The cinematography is just stunning, Mercouri's acting is divine, and Romy Schneider was never as pretty as in Dassin's drama. It's hard to find, but it is a must-see movie!

I just saw this film (at LACMA) after having seen it when it first came out. Wow! I didn't remember it that way at all! I guess when you're 19 this kind of stuff seems hot stuff, or very very deep. Now that I'm 56, I think it's just kind of pretentious but full of wonderful acting, nice cinematography and lighting, and very pretty actors! Romy Schneider looks beautiful in this, yes. But I have seen her looking even better (mostly in French films). She did, though, have some very early-50s kind of makeup, which was perplexing, considering this was '66. Melina, unbelievably, looks very contemporary; she could have just stepped out onto Rodeo Drive in 2004. I had forgotten how STRIKING her looks are. And her emoting is, well, breath-taking. Peter Finch looked so slender and drop-dead elegant. His face took MY breath away. God, what a face! (No wonder everyone supposedly from Vivian Leigh to Danny Kaye fell in love with him!) Note: Topkapi came before this film, not after. As to the plot, maybe I'm just dense, but I didn't really see the point. I just wanted to be a part of the party! Altho' Melina played, supposedly, a horrible drunkard, I felt she acted like a reasoned lady at all times and don't see what the husband and the lover were "tsch tsch"ing about. She seemed to keep it together pretty darned well for a supposed alcoholic. The whole bit about the murderer was just a turn-off to me, and I thought it kind of spoiled the fun (some of you smarties will say, Duh, that was the POINT!), but I didn't WANT the fun to stop! In sum, pretty people in exotic locales. Lots of this film was very engrossing. The actors are everything here.