Customer Reviews

Summertime

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My second all-time Katharinge Hepburn movies. I have seen it at least five times. It is the epitimy of romance movies. Miss Hepburn and Rosana Brazzi, with the masterful touch of David Lean, make Venice come alive on film. Watching it is the best 90-minute summer a movie lover can spend.

Ohio secretary Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn) has saved up for years to visit Venice and it's everything she hoped it would be...exquisitely beautiful and romantic...but lonely. Or so she thinks on her first night there, as she sits alone and watches the lovers in Piazza San Marco. Then, she sees Renato (Rossano Brazzi), a handsome and charming shopkeeper, and she starts to change her mind. He pursues her, too, and before you can say, "Buona Sera!" they are in love. Jane now thinks Venice is perfectly glorious, but some information about Renato may change her opinion of both him and Venice.

Directed by David Lean, known for his wonderful epic movies, this is a very simple and personal story of a middle-aged woman's wistfull dream of romance. It's easy to feel Jane's sadness and later, her exhilaration. Hepburn is perfectly cast and gives a wonderful performance, full of spunk and longing. Charismatic Brazzi was just starting his American film career in 1955 when he played Renato, and he certainly could sweep a woman off her feet. Filmed entirely in Venice, the scenery is lovingly photographed, and there's even a sweet subplot about a little boy. Highly recommended for those who like a (nearly) proper romance in an idyllic setting. Lovely.

Katharine Hepburn plays Jane Hudson, an unmarried woman vacationing alone in Venice. The city captivates her, though it's not long before her loneliness begins to take away her enjoyment of its sites. When she meets Renato, an Italian who owns an antique shop, she is nervous and thrilled by the near instantaneous attraction between them. Like the city itself, Renato holds out the promise of an unforgettable experience, even though he's a married man. Hepburn does a fine job as a spinster seeking a little bit of romance before she grows too old.

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD release of the film.

This is a good movie filmed entirely on location in Venice, Italy. Just getting back from a trip to Italy a week before writing this review makes it more interesting. The film stars Katherine Hepburn in one of her most memorable roles. It is also filmed in Technicolor making it more interesting.

There is also a memorable scene where she backs up and falls into a canal while attempting to photograph a certain building. This scene was filmed in the same location of the exterior shots of the "library" in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This building is actually a church. Chiesa di San Barnaba. Located south of the Grand Canal in Venice.

The DVD itself only has the theatrical trailer as a special feature but it still is a nice movie to watch and very well photographed.

Summertime is one of my favorite films. Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi are superbly cast in this great film. Venice is
a dream. Sad ending though. I would have stayed in Venice.

I have only seen this film once, probably about 15 years ago when I was in my early twenties, but it stays with me as one of my all time favourites. I had scived an afternoon off work, came home with a bottle of wine, turned the TV on and Summertime or Summer Madness as it was called in the UK appeared. I instantly fell in love with this film, probably because I am a romantic at heart and you want the girl to get her man ! The innocence of Hepburn in this film is there for all to see, she gives her all and you cannot help but feel for this very naive woman in a city where inexperience in love is rare. Venice itself is shown to be a beautiful city, alive and full of energy, a perfect setting for this story to unfold.

I am English and live in the UK and have been unable to get a video copy of this film that will play on my TV, but I would recommend this film to anybody who enjoys a love story. It tugs at your heart and really does stay with you as one of Hepburns best films and her main main Rossano Brazzi is great too, he plays her emotions magnificently - Sit back and enjoy a truly wonderful film...

I LOVE this movie... it is one of my favorites...right up there with Katherine Hepburn's ALICE ADAMS, another favorite Hepburn movie. It is romantic, has spectacular Venetian scenery, is superbly acted, as are all Hepburn movies. Rosanno Brazzi is soooo handsome and most appealing. Many characters are just what I enjoy, somewhat eccentric, but very endearing. There is plenty of humor. Hepburn befriends an adorable young Italian boy who will steal your heart away. He lives 'on the edge', worships Hepburn, weaving his way throughout Venice wheeling and dealing his way through life ... charming all he does 'business' with. Who wouldn't love this enchanting movie? The story is A+++++.

I'll watch it over and over and over again and again...when I want to see an excellent story, have a few laughs ... and a good cry. It is that good! Highly recommend it...especially for sentimentalists who appreciate a good tearjerker.

Summertime would seem an odd choice for Katharine Hepburn to play in, a technicolor film set in Venice, with her vulnerable and in love with Rossano Brazzi. Yet, she acts the role of the American abroad seeking love with exquisite conviction, and, Rossano Brazzi gives the best performance he ever gave in any English speaking film to be sure. The reason for his performance is Katharine Hepburn's performance..so smooth, graceful, and never out of line with the issues of the plot, but giving David Lean, the director..one of his best... more than he perhaps bargained for..depth, sensitivity, despair, loneliness, and an ending that is sad and filled with unfulfilled hopes, strung out as Miss Hepburn is by a Venetian memory, not at all epic in scope, but it is made so, by her genius.

The score helps a great deal to underscore the film, making it operatic, and the Rossini references and his actual music add to this operatic sensibility.

Summertime is one of the few films up to this point(1955) Katharine Hepburn made in color..there was The African Queen,(1951), Desk Set(1955) but she is very different in these, and The Rainmaker, later than Summertime by a year, is hampered by indoor sets and color that hide rather than show Ms. Hepburn's startling beauty. In Summertime, in color, she gets her only chance to be absolutely stunning, and it is so paplable and rich that you cannot take your eyes off of her.

See this beutiful film,but watch for the American racism, the advanced sexual mores that the Catholic Church hated in this film but could not censor, and the very evident pollution of the canals of Venice in 1955. David Lean, always showing the shining surfaces, but always too, the shadows and the undertows of life..even in Zhivago.

Lots of subtlties and lots of Katharine Hepburn here. A must!

I have to laugh with the reviewer before me, for I did in fact, after viewing this movie, rush to my computer and search the web for air fares to Venice. That is how beautifully the cinematographer captures this gorgeous city. For those of you who have been there, this will be a wonderful re-visit. And for those of us who have not, let's go!!

Katharine Hepburn here is in her prime. Rossano Brazzi is every woman's dream man (at least, he is mine). I do not believe that her conflict about their attraction (and yes, love for each other) was about sex outside of marriage, so much as it was the principle of an involvement with someone who is married. Perhaps it was a little of both. Still, they touched the heart of happiness, and Hepburn's character, Jane, seemed to intuitively know when to leave, stating that in the past she had always stayed too long at the dance (or was it the party?).

It is hard to review a movie that is so much about the heart, because matters of the heart are mysterious, and are not always reviewable. Leave it to say that this film is a delight, a trip through beauty, Brazzi's sincere performance, Hepburn at her most spirited, and a sterling story. And must not forget David Lean's quality direction. No part seems small with him at the helm.

This movie rates as one of my all time favorites. It leaves you a little sad at the end, but still smiling.