Call me by your Name
Lombard region, summer 1983. On vacation with his parents in their sumptuous 17th century villa, Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), 17, is reluctant to leave his room to Oliver (Armie Hammer ), the doctoral student of the season who came to assist his father, a professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, in his research. Against all expectations, the young American will become her first love.
The adaptation of André Aciman's novel captures, with great sensitivity, the game of seduction and the romantic beginnings of a golden age. A solar coming-of-age story, Call me by your Name immortalizes the youthful beauty of Elio and Oliver in the indolent summer of the Italian countryside.
• Call me by your Name, available on Blu-Ray from SPHE, and streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, Canal+ VOD, Apple TV+…
Violent summerRiccione, July 1943. Carlo Caremoli (Jean-Louis Trintignant), son of a Mussolini dignitary, spends a carefree vacation with his friends between the beach, parties and boat trips. He meets Roberta (Eleonora Rossi Drago), widow and mother of a little girl ten years older than him, with whom he falls madly in love.
Second film by Valerio Zurlini (The Professor, The Desert of the Tartars), Violent Summer made in 1959 tells a love story against a backdrop of war. Far from the tragedy playing out in the rest of Italy in the midst of war, Carlo and Roberta live a passionate romance soon shaken by the societal straitjacket. The echo of the war arrives in turn, in discreet but inevitable touches, as if to remind them (and us too) that great History corrects the destiny of men. A “gentle melodrama†said Zurlini of this audacious and burning variation of Le Diable au corps by Raymond Radiguet.
• Été violent, available on DVD from Opening, and in streaming on myCanal
Le Fanfaron
August 15 in Rome. Bruno Cortona (Vittorio Gassman) drives around the deserted city in his convertible. In search of cigarettes and a public telephone, the talkative talker crosses paths with Roberto Mariani (Jean-Louis Trintignant is filming again in Italy), a young law student, whom he takes with him on a journey of no return.
In 1962, the master of Italian comedy Dino Risi took us into a high-flying road movie with a deliciously antagonistic pair. His muse Vittorio Gassman, who played in The New Monsters, Perfume of a Woman and Lost Souls among others, plays a cunning seducer opposite Trintignant, all restrained, formidable in the skin of the student who discovers life.
• Le Fanfaron: Blu-Ray from LCJ, and streaming on Universciné, Canal VOD, Prime Video, Apple TV+…
Midsommar As he prepares to separate from his girlfriend Dani (Florence Pugh), Christian (Jack Reynor) decides to turn back following a family tragedy. The young woman finally accompanies him to a small Swedish village where the natives celebrate the summer solstice. The stay gradually takes a disturbing turn.
After Hereditary (with Toni Collette, 2018), Ari Aster, young horror cinema prodigy, directed Midsommar, a mind-blowing work which takes place on a land where the sun never lies down and where men shelter from ordinary cruelty. A destructive or cathartic (it depends) initiatory journey into the heart of an accomplished community organized around its intrinsic beliefs and rituals.
• Midsommar: available on Blu-Ray and 4K from Metropolitan Film & Video, and streaming on Prime Video, Universciné, Canal VOD, AppleTV+
Remember…last summer Southport, summer 1996. On the evening of July 4, four teenagers celebrate the end of the school year. The party turns into a nightmare when their car hits a man on the way home. Panicked, they decide to get rid of the body and promise to keep it a secret. A year passes peacefully until one of them receives a frightening letter revealing: "I know what you did last summer."
Succeeding the worldwide phenomenon Scream (Wes Craven, 1996), Remember Last Summer, also written by Kevin Williamson, revives the codes of the traditional slasher with the murderer, a mysterious hook killer. Starring Jennifer Love Hewitt (her first film role) and Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Grudge), the film is a true worldwide success with more than $125 million in revenue. It will also return in the form of a reboot in 2025 in cinemas.
• Remember… last summer: available in 4K from SPHE and streaming on Canal VOD, AppleTV+, Prime Video
