One Deadly Summer (1983)
aka L'été Meurtrier
Genre: Thriller | Mystery
Country: France | Director: Jean Becker
Language: French | Subtitles: English (.srt file)
Aspect ratio: Widescreen 1.66:1 | Length: 127mn
In spring 1976, a 19-year-old beauty, her German-born mother, and her crippled father move to the town of a firefighter nicknamed Pin-Pon. Everyone notices the provocative Eliane. She singles out Pin-Pon and soon is crying on his shoulder (she's myopic and hates her reputation as a dunce and as easy); she moves in with him, knits baby clothes, and plans their wedding. Is this love or some kind of plot? She asks Pin-Pon's mother and aunt about the piano in the barn: who delivered it on a November night in 1955? Why does she want to know, and what does it have to do with her mother's sorrows, her father's injury, this quick marriage, and the last name on her birth certificate?
Isabelle Adjani gives a brilliant, instinctive performance (and she also has several showstopping nude scenes) as an animalistic, untamed young sexpot who seeks vengeance. In the first few minutes, the film seems a bit confusing and pointless, but gradually reveals itself to be a multi-layered story with quite a few twists along the way.
One Deadly Summer (1983)
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