Summertime - Criterion Collection
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Starring: ~ Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi Isa Miranda Darren McGavin Mari Aldon List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $19.99 You Save: $9.96 (33%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours  |
|
 | Product Details: Studio: Criterion Region: 1 Rating:   Sales Rank: 16024 | | Look for similar DVDs by genre: | | Customers who bought this item also bought:
| | Customer Reviews: Summertime is a classic! (26 June 2010)One of my all time favorites!Lonely woman goes to Italy for summer vacation and finds love. Lovely story,great acting from some of Hollywood's best! wonderful acting, beautiful cinematography and a very good if somewhat dated story (19 May 2010)Summertime is the type of outstanding film that I just don't see and enjoy very often; it was brilliantly photographed on location in Venice; indeed, Venice was so well filmed that it almost plays a part as a character itself instead of being merely a backdrop for so many scenes in this picture. Katherine Hepburn gives a stunning performance as a repressed secretary from Akron, Ohio, who travels ostensibly to see Venice but who is, in reality, on a voyage to discover something that's been missing in her life--romance. This was also a movie that helped to establish Rossano Brazzi as a fine actor who could be the leading man opposite the best actresses in Hollywood. In addition, the script was very well written and the choreography works wonders for the film. When the action starts, we meet a seemingly happy secretary from Ohio, Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn), who is very excited when her train is finally pulling into Venice. She eagerly takes home movies using her movie camera and is quickly caught up in a swirl of energy as she gets off the train; this represents the action and the affair that is to come. Once at her quiet pension, Jane settles in but she still has to put up with loud tourists who aren't always very polite; and slowly but surely we simultaneously see the real Jane Hudson emerge. No longer the happy camper all excited to finally reach Venice, Jane starts to drink--more than just a little--and the unhappiness and loneliness is written all over her face as she watches couples walk by everywhere holding hands and enjoying their love for each other. It isn't long, however, before Renato de Rossi (Rossano Brazzi) enters the scene. They meet at Piazza San Marco but Jane's resistance and repression inhibit her way too much for her to scarcely even acknowledge this man eyeing her and his obvious romantic intentions. Jane finds it even more difficult to repress her desire for romance when she stops to look at a red goblet in a shop--which, she discovers, is owned by Renato, the same man who she already knows in her heart of hearts she really wants to know better. Some may say that the red goblet represents romance; and I think they are right. As time passes, Jane slowly yields and cautiously lets Renato into her life. A romance begins to blossom but things that could easily derail their brief happiness together since, after all, Jane has planned to return to her job in Ohio. For example, Jane is outraged when she discovers Renato is married--how will this affect their relationship? Will Jane ever give in to her true feelings and let romance happen? Will Jane return to America or will she stay in Italy and never leave Renato as he wants her to do? No spoilers here--watch and find out! I will say, however, that the movie reflects societal values of a time when a single, middle-aged woman's romance almost had to be overseas where nobody who knew her would notice, talk, gossip and subsequently "defame her character!" Look also for a fine performance by Gaetano Autiero as a young Italian boy who becomes Jane's unofficial tour guide and friend. Summertime is an excellent film and I highly recommend it. This is definitely a treat for fans of Hepburn and Brazzi; and if you don't find yourself wanting to see Venice after you watch this I would be very surprised! Bad Movie But Great Scenery (16 April 2010)If you like Venice, then the scenery in this movie is for you. We were just in Venice and loved it, so seeing this movie brought back good memories, and showed how Venice was even decades ago. The acting in this movie is almost laughable - just awful, as is the script, however. "FROM SMILES TO TEARS AND BACK AGAIN" (24 March 2010)Venice and Katharine Hepburn are both beautifully photographed by Jack Hildyard in David Lean's delicate, 1955 romatic drama "Summertime", based on the play "The Time Of The Cuckoo" by Arthur Laurents ("Rope," "West Side Story", "Gypsy", "The Way We Were"). Laurents' play also served as the basis for the failed, but not forgotten, Stephen Sondheim-Richard Rodgers 1965 Broadway musical "Do I Hear A Waltz?" On the surface, Jane Hudson, a middle-aged woman on vacation in Venice, seems like a typical Katharine Hepburn heroine. Jane is eager and excited by new places and experiences. She quickly makes friends with a dim-witted American tourist and her obnoxious husband (Jane Rose and MacDonald Parke), a boorish artist and his lovely wife (Darren McGavin and Mari Alden), the hotel manager (Isa Miranda), and Mauro, a young boy who becomes her unofficial tour guide (Gaetano Autiero). For a while, the audience is simply content to soak up the sights and sounds of Venice along with Jane. But the most sumptuous surroundings in the world can not hide the deep longing, the terrible lonliness and emotional repression within her. Katharine Hepburn gives an amazingly sensitive, perfectly poignant (and Academy Award nominated) peformance; moving simultaneously from smiles to tears and back again. Jane has clearly come to Venice on a mission. She is searching for some happiness that has been elusive all her life. She is hoping for some "magical, mystical, miracle." What she gets is a brief, but passionate, affair with Renalto (Rossano Brazzi, best known to American audiences for his role as Emile Debeque in the 1958 film version of "South Pacific"), a sexy shopowner who is happily separated from, but still married to, his wife. Jane is both enchanted and offended by Venice, and Renalto forces her to confront all of this. Realizing her deep sadness and repression, he nevertheless scolds her for her prudish attitudes. "You Americans are so disturbed by sex," he says. "We don't take it lightly," she responds as her self-defenses crumble. "Then take it! Don't talk it," he shouts. Jane realizes it is ridiculous not to take what Renalto offers her and, as fireworks blaze above them, she does. As David Denby shrewdly observes in his essay in the DVD booklet, "The love affair itself may be formulaic, but Hepburn falling in love is a miracle... "Summertime's" principal drama is Jane's changing state of mind." It is, indeed, pure joy to see Jane relax, smile and really mean it, at last. Jane is sensible enough to know that the affair with Renalto will lead to nothing, and she knows when to leave. But the radiant look on Katharine Hepburn's face as her train leaves Venice (with Renalto unable to give her a goodbye gift) suggests that her brief summer fling was extremely worthwhile. It is a pity, however, that director David Lean moved on exclusively to big epics like "Lawrence Of Arabia." "Summertime" demonstrates his graceful, gentle touch with intimate, personal dramas. Summertime - Criterion Collection (21 March 2010)The DVD product that I purchased, Summertime - Criterion Collection, is exactly what I expected in terms of quality (very good), as well as the timeliness of delivery. I will clearly be inclined to make a similar purchase in the future. |
