The Beautiful Summer (2023)

The Beautiful Summer

2023 | 111 minutes | 5.7 ★ (44)

Drama

Overview
Set during a “beautiful summer” in Turin in 1938, against the backdrop of Fascist-era Italy’s subsequent entry into World War II. sees the 18-year-old Cassell as the uninhibited model Amelia. She introduces her younger friend Ginia to a world of bohemian artists where she will fall in love for the first time.
Release Date
24 August 2023
DirectingLaura Luchetti
Budget
$0.00
Revenue
$0.00
Stars
Yle Vianello Deva Cassel Nicolas Maupas

Videos

User Reviews

Brent Marchant

20 October 2023

It’s frustrating to watch a film that’s ostensibly headed along a particular trajectory but that continually stumbles on the path it takes to get there. That’s precisely what happens in this period piece coming out/coming of age story set in 1938 Italy. Writer-director Laura Luchetti’s adaptation of Cesare Pavese’s 1949 novel about an impressionable 17-year-old dressmaker (Yile Yara Vianello) who becomes romantically infatuated with an artist’s model (Deva Cassel) takes its own sweet time (and plenty of overlong detours) in making its way toward a seemingly foregone conclusion. But, even when this offering apparently approaches that destination, it takes yet another unexpected left-field turn and subsequently leads to what the filmmaker herself admits is a deliberately ambiguous conclusion. Consequently, this is the kind of movie that’s likely to leave many viewers scratching their head and asking, “What’s the point of all this?” The picture is allegedly intended to address a subject that was considered taboo at the time of the story’s setting and of the book’s writing, but that objective isn’t fulfilled nearly as clearly as it might have been. As a result, whatever lofty intentions might have been behind the initiation of this production, they’re decidedly obscured in the final cut. There are also some passing references to the fascist sociopolitical conditions of the time (elements not included in the source material), but they’re never developed much, making their inclusion look like throwaway afterthoughts. To its credit, “The Beautiful Summer” has some fine cinematography, well-chosen location settings showcasing the beauty of Turin and a stirring soundtrack, but, if these attributes are the best that one can say about the film, that’s not saying much about the picture overall. Luchetti’s third feature outing truly needs ample retooling to make it work, because, as it stands, it doesn’t.

More Like This

Indoors

During summertime, Nahuel moves to his friends to spend vacation time together. Between drinks, weed and foolish games, sexual tension starts to...

Maybe... Maybe Not

The heterosexual man Axel is thrown out of his girlfriends home for cheating and ends up moving in with a gay man. Axel learns the advantages of...

The Big Blue

Two men answer the call of the ocean in this romantic fantasy-adventure. Jacques and Enzo are a pair of friends who have been close since...

The Wanderers

The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel...

The Godfather

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito...

The Godfather Part II

In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone...

The Godfather Part III

In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in 1979 New York and Italy, aging mafia don, Michael Corleone seeks forgiveness for his...

Antoine and Colette

Now aged 17, Antoine Doinel works in a factory which makes records. At a music concert, he meets a girl his own age, Colette, and falls in love...

Maria Full of Grace

A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.

Bend It Like Beckham

Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is...

7 Virgins

Tano is 16-years-old and is already sitting in jail. In 48 hours he’s a free man and off to the wedding of his brother. In the two days he recounts...

Ghettokids - Brüder ohne Heimat

Two trouble-causing brothers, who in the second generation after World War II Germany live, are in the center of this German made for TV movie. The...

Fire

In a barren, arranged marriage to an amateur swami who seeks enlightenment through celibacy, Radha's life takes an irresistible turn when her...

Lembranças Do Que Ainda Está Por Vir

Hurricane Bianca

A teacher from New York moves to a small town in Texas, gets fired for being gay, and returns disguised in drag to get revenge on the people who...

Kaoru Kiri: The Best Lesbian In Japan, Authentic Account

A backstage documentary and interview with the real life lesbian stage performer Kaoru Kiri mixed with a fictional life of her rejected lover.

Meeting with Diego

Noah, in his final year of high school, decides to sign up for a dating app after recommendations from his best friend. There, he will make a...

Haddi

A transgender woman, Haddi, moves to Delhi to join a gang of transpeople and cross-dressers headed by an influential man. But is this move...

Fried Green Tomatoes

Amidst her own personality crisis, southern housewife Evelyn Couch meets Ninny, an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode...

The Male Gaze: Strikers & Defenders

Work up a sweat from the soccer field to the locker room in these drama-fueled four films from Germany, France and the UK that explore how rivalry...

Cast

Crew