Product Description

An American spinster's dream of romance finally becomes a bittersweet reality when she meets a handsome-but married-Italian man while vacationing in Venice. Katharine Hepburn's sensitive portrayal of the lonely heroine and Jack Hildyard's glorious Technicolor® photography make Summertime an endearing and visually enchanting film.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15035 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 1998-09-09
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
There was a time before Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago when David Lean made smaller, more effortlessly picturesque movies, and this splendid Venetian travelogue and love story is one of them--the last, actually, before the epic onslaught started with the Oscar-winning The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957. "Sometimes I think a schedule in Venice is just, well, all wrong," observes a bewitched tourist to Katharine Hepburn's vacationing spinster near the beginning of Summertime, which is based on Arthur Laurents's play The Time of the Cuckoo. Before the end, however, Jane will have thrown her idealized romantic notions into the canals and embarked on a passionate affair with a married art dealer (Rossano Brazzi). More blissful than Lean's adulterous fable Brief Encounter 10 years prior, but not entirely guilt- or pain-free, this deceptively simple romance is an often-fascinating glimpse at a time when sexual revolution for Americans--and especially middle-aged women--was confined to fanciful European trysts. Plus, with all the architecture, art, Italian conversation, music, and fine cuisine around you (all richly photographed on location by Jack Hildyard), who's to pish-posh a furtive all-nighter between one repressive country and a free-loving one? The two leads are graceful and even musical in their movements and line deliveries. Hepburn's initial outrage at the idea that illicit love is part of her impossibly beautiful surroundings may at first seem outdated, but the Academy Award-winning actress is too good not to suggest as well the poignant, deep fear her character has of opening up emotionally to anybody. Ultimately, Summertime is the movie equivalent of a deep, satisfying sigh. --Robert Abele

Customer Reviews

Perfect summer romance
Summertime pairs Hepburn with Italian hunk Rossano Brazzi in a delicious, sad, funny and ultimately very adult film about a Plain Jane who finds romance in Venice. Hepburn is a joy to watch here as she gets to show so many facets of her character. Jane Hudson is socially self-assured; she has a funny quip for every occasion and she's not afraid to speak her mind; she really is the quintessential American spinster of the early 20th century. She has a romantic side that longs for moonlight trysts in a gondola, dancing at midnight, and coffee and small-talk with her lover in a sidewalk café, but there's an element of prudishness which holds her back from a love affair with a married Venetian who assures her that he and his wife have an "understanding." Ultimately Jane recognizes that she's not likely to get her dream of love intact and that she'd be a fool not to take the one on offer, and she blossoms into the happy, loving, passionate woman she (and the viewer) always suspected she could be.

Brazzi as Renato is earnest and handsome, and while he's no great shakes as an actor, he does persuade us. After all, we want to be persuaded, don't we? Just like Jane Hudson, we want to believe that even after half a lifetime of loneliness and disappointment, love is possible. There are some nice supporting roles here, particularly a young Darrin McGavin as a self-involved artist, and Mari Aldon as his trophy wife who isn't quite as dumb as she first seems. There are a few bits of business that seem forced, such as the loud, insensitive American tourists - perhaps this sort of characterization has become so clichéd that what was new in 1955 seems awkward and heavy-handed now - and Jane's friendship with a street urchin who cadges cigarettes from her. On the other hand, Isa Miranda gives a lovely, low-key performance as the owner of the pensione where Jane is staying. If Jane is the quintessential American spinster, then Signora Fiorina is the essence of a worldly European woman of "a certain age."

Don't look for a syrupy, artificially happy ending here; Jane returns to her old life, her real life, if you will, in spite of the happiness she's known with Renato because she is a practical woman and this was, after all, just a summertime fling.

A wonderful 50s time-trip to Venice
Venice has never been more beautiful; Katherine Hepburn has never been more poignant, and Rosanno Brazzi has never been sexier. And this DVD version of the film captures the Techni-colors in ways they've not been seen since the film was released in the mid-50s. What's surprising about seeing the film today (for anyone with a knowledge of where screen morals were in the 50s) is the fact that it deals with adultery in a way that was rarely seen in its time. Spinster Hepburn goes off to romantic Venice, sort-of-but-not-quite looking for love, and when she finds it, it's with a middle-aged, married man. While she doesn't "get the guy" in the end, she isn't "punished for her transgression" either. It seems a miracle that the Church allowed such a movie to be made in the 50s--and in Italy no less. Watch this in a double bill with "Roman Holiday" and you'll be booking a flight to Italy before the end credits finish rolling.

The Best of Hepburn ? Possibly !!
SUMMERTIMEis the film version of the hit Shirley Booth Broadway success "Time of the Cuckoo" and it later would be the basis for Richard Rodgers & Stephen Sondheim's "Do I Hear a Waltz?" Obviously, there is substantial reason for the longevity of a simple romantic plot in a remarkably romantic setting. It simply works, but David Lean's film version works the best of all. Never has Venice been captured on screen as well, and, certainly, never as effectively as a "character" in a lovely tale that is made perfect for even the most anti-romantic audiences by the superlative, career topping work of Katharine Hepburn as a spinster who discovers "true love" with an unacceptable partner during her Venice vacation. The color is absolutely perfect; the music is splendid; everything works. The cast rises to Hepburnian heights -- including Rossano Brazzi, Mari Aldon, Isa Miranda, Darren McGavin, and an adorable youngster. Key scenes are everywhere, but who will ever forget Hepburn and the Canal....!! A lovely movie that deserves its perennial popularity.