A Burning Hot Summer

The actors in this French movie with English titles work hard. They act as if they feel everything intensely. The film may be enjoyed if the viewer is French and familiar with the French language and customs. I was unable to feel what the actors obviously wanted to get across to viewers. I was unable to suspend disbelief. The actors dress and personal hygiene does not correspond to what I see every day in America. This may not be a negative to French audiences. The woman in the film regarded as an outstanding beauty would not be so to most American viewers. This criticism may be unfair if viewers expect most young women to be beauty-contest gorgeous. The French woman's persona and actions may make her beautiful to a French person. French audiences may appreciate the realism in dress and actions. If I was asked to recommend this film I would say that French audiences may find the movie entertaining. However American audiences are likely to have difficulty appreciating the French appearance, emotions and behavior.

My wife and I saw this film at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival under the title "That Summer." This film repeatedly employs what I call "tableau and talk" as it focuses on a visual--perhaps a wall inside a home or an outdoor vista--and then has an off-camera voice-over talk (or more precisely drone) on about something. The film that we saw pretty much opens with the climactic scene so the audience knows very early on where this is headed. It is a film about two couples though the more famous and prosperous couple (Louis Garrel and Monica Bellucci)get the lion's share of the attention. Despite their successes, this couple is clearly more troubled and less happy. They seem to take turns sabotaging the relationship and their actions make neither especially sympathetic. This severely constrains audience investment in the unfolding tragedy. As one may clearly gather from my rating of the film, I was very disappointed. However, I don't think my reaction was atypical for that audience as this was the only festival film out of 30 we saw in Toronto last year for which no one applauded at the end. Every other film that we watched received at least a smattering of applause even though it may have been characterized as polite or even half-hearted.

The meaning is in the eye of a perceiver. I liked this movie. The acting was superb, which is expected from french actors. Louis Garrel is a very talented actor. I disagree with the reviewer from Oklahoma in regards to "actors dress and personal hygiene " and "The woman in the film regarded as an outstanding beauty would not be so to most American viewers". I am not French, but have European upbringing and I find this opinion as arrogant and stuck-up. There is nothing in this movie suggests that the actor"s hygiene is poor and they dress like slobs. Hollywood movies actors are so fake, so polished , so unrealistic and talentless, that I stopped watching it long time ago. As for the Monica Bellucci's beauty, once again, American standards are fake beauty of over-groomed people, while Monica Bellucci is a classic beauty. I can't name one single modern American actress that is a real, classic beauty. There are few young Hollywood actresses that are natural beauties, but they are not born American (Natalie Portman,Kate Beckinsale,Charlize Theron).

A Burning Hot Summer (2011), directed by Philippe Garrel, is a moody French-Italian drama that explores love, jealousy, and the fragility of human connection. The story follows the lives of two couples whose relationships intertwine against the backdrop of Rome.

Paul (Jérôme Robart), a struggling young actor, narrates the film. He and his girlfriend, Élisabeth (Monica Bellucci), move to Rome where they become close to another couple-Frédéric (Louis Garrel), a painter, and his wife Angèle (Céline Sallette). While Paul and Élisabeth live modestly, Frédéric and Angèle exude glamour and intensity, their marriage charged with both passion and volatility. Frédéric, charismatic but temperamental, embodies the archetype of the tortured artist, while Angèle, a former actress, struggles with her fading independence and the suffocating intensity of their relationship.

As the two couples spend more time together, tensions rise. Paul observes the unraveling of Frédéric and Angèle's marriage, their heated arguments punctuated by moments of tenderness. Angèle begins to drift emotionally, seeking freedom from Frédéric's possessiveness. In contrast, Paul and Élisabeth's relationship, though not without strain, remains grounded in simplicity and resilience, providing a foil to the destructiveness of their friends.

The film's tone is melancholic and contemplative, steeped in Garrel's signature minimalism and poetic imagery. The narrative moves between past and present, weaving memory and imagination with reality, blurring boundaries to capture the shifting emotions of its characters. Garrel portrays love as both intoxicating and destructive, a force that binds and isolates in equal measure.

Ultimately, tragedy intrudes, underscoring the impermanence of passion and life itself. A Burning Hot Summer is less about plot than mood, a meditation on desire, fragility, and the inevitability of loss, offering a stark yet lyrical reflection on the complexities of intimacy.

Review written by artist jayakumar jrain.

Philippe Garrel at his lushest and mercifully at his most accessible. "A Burning Hot Summer" is a delectably sensuous tale of amour fou in which two couples spend a summer together in Rome; a case of Godard meets Minnelli. So as not to stray too far from the fold, Garrel makes one of the women, (Monica Belluci), an actress married to a so-so painter, (Garrel's son, Louis), and the other couple, movie extras. It's the same kind of self-enclosed world Woody Allen might inhabit sans the humour or indeed any attempt at Gallic charm; at times it reminded me of how Joan Crawford used to suffer in mink. All four central performances are excellent, even the usually reticent Louis Garrel makes his mark here. Unfortunately none of these people are particularly likeable and outside of the movie I'm sure I wouldn't want to know them. For once, however, that doesn't prove a barrier when the film is as smart as this one.