One Deadly Summer (1984)

Finding her performances in The Story of Adele H and Deadly Circuit to be fabulous,I decided to check Isabelle Adjani's IMDb page. A huge fan of auteur Jacques Becker,I was excited to find that Adjani had worked with Jacques son Jean, which led to me looking forward to the Summer season.View on the film:Not making anything else until a segment in 1991's Lest We Forget,director Jean Becker shows here what could have been,with a highly distinctive style,that retains the elegance of his dad Jacques production, but is proudly it's own creation. Wiggling Elle into the Montecciari family life, Becker and his cinematographer brother Étienne give the first half a lush Erotic rural Drama atmosphere,with sharp outdoor lighting giving the many naked appearances of Elle a sensually-charged mood,and the warm,golden glow within the Montecciari household colouring the cold shoulders and snide remarks Elle gets from family members. Closely working with editor Jacques Witta,Becker undresses Elle's flirting with tightly-coiled editing that brings to light a mystery in her family life, that gains clarity with each note Elle hits on a secret that her parents have locked from her sight.Adapting his own novel,Sébastien Japrisot wonderfully draws each member of the Montecciari family with quirks that abrasively rub against Elle, from the hot and cold romance of Pin-Pon and the frozen glances from the mother, to the fragile attempt at friendship from a half-deaf relative. Gathering the pieces to Elle's family life, Japrisot displays an excellent maturity to the horrors inflicted on her family,with exchanges between Elle and her locked behind a door dad allowing Japrisot to peel open the psychological damage that the secret has had on Elle. Looking ravishing from her first appearance,Adjani gives an incredible performance as Elle,who is given a sexual swagger in the naked scenes,which keeps the mental fragility just underneath the skin during this one deadly Summer.

It seems incredible, but I only got to see this picture 26 years after its release. A surprising plot that, at first, seems just like any other we would have already seen on screen. Allthou later it reveals itself to be full of surprises. Isabelle Adjani is at her peak of beauty and talent.One thing was always on my mind while watching her figure and style. It seems as if the director Jean Becker had based her image on one of Milo Manara's characters. Adjani's body lines and her face were a form of inspiration for one of these two artists.An absolute "must see".

I have been searching to find the name of this film for nearly 3 years now because I am dying to see it again! I have to say IMDB's search capabilites ROCKS! I would never have found this if it weren't for the character search. I just didn't understand why Eliane moved right in with Pin-Pon and his family (I thought she was looking for the men who "hurt" her mother) and when she found the piano in the barn, she became even more suspicious of his family, but WHY did she continue to stay with him??? So, I will watch it again and come back after I figure out what in the world I missed the first time. Thanks IMDB!

It is high summer in the south of France. and one family's peace is about to be disturbed by Eliane, a young woman with revenge on her mind.Isabelle Adjani was 28 and already a star when she played Eliane, the scheming minx who dominates the film. Eliane is a wild child, disturbed, bitchy and alluring by turns. She has in mind a grand plan of revenge against the people whom she holds responsible for the rape of her mother. However, events take an unexpected turn ...This is a story saturated in, and powered by, sex. Eliane is obsessed by the violent rape of her mother back in 1955, the very incident which spawned her. In a real sense, her whole existence is given meaning by the rape. She is an extremely attractive girl, and she uses sex to get what she wants, and particularly to advance her designs of vengeance.Pin Pon (Alain Souchon) is a decent, simple man. His family, the Montecciari, are proud of their Italian descent. In their barn stands the barrel organ which played "Roses of Picardy" during the rape, and this Italian organ-grinder's instrument becomes for Eliane the symbol of her sense of injustice. She schemes to entrap Pin Pon into marrying her, in order to get close to the family's bosom.From the early scene in which Pin Pon emerges from under a car on a mechanic's trolley to find himself looking up Eliane's tiny diaphanous skirt, we know that he is an innocent dupe and that she is a pouting, dangerous little madam. It quickly becomes obvious that she is also unstable. Her behaviour in the restaurant embarrasses Pin Pon and her relationship with her mother is difficult and quasi-sexual. At times she regresses into a child-like vulnerability, and at others she is wantonly malicious and unruly.The narration of the story switches between the characters in a natural and convincing way. Eliane's relationship with the deaf Costagna (Suzanne Flon) is sensitively portrayed. Eliane is the only one whom the deaf woman can understand, because she whispers. The deaf old fool sees more clearly than the others what Eliane is about.To manipulate Pin Pon into marriage, Eliane pretends to be 'expecting'. Once again, sex is being used to avenge sex, the product of the unlooked-for pregnancy is exploiting her own imaginary pregnancy to settle the score. She takes particular delight in antagonising Pin Pon's stiff, correct mother (Jenny Cleve). The wedding is marred when Eliane unaccountably vanishes - another slight inflicted on the Montecciari, and a mirroring of the baby's 'disappearance'.The key to the complex plot is Eliane's traumatic relationship with her father, played by Michel Galabru. Just as Eliane is not really an expectant mother, so M. Devigne is not really a father. There is a sexual element in the bond of affection, at least in Eliane's unbalanced mind, and a colossal burden of guilt.If the men in the truck hadn't taken a wrong turning on that November night in 1955, or if the German girl hadn't been displaced by the war, or the Italians hadn't chosen to settle in the Vaucluse ... There is a sense in which the accidental intermingling of nationalities has caused this disruption in the life of the sleepy provencal village. And now, twenty years on, the potent mixture is reaching critical mass.