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The once-happy marriage between brooding painter Frederic and his movie-star wife Angele hits the rocks when another couple joins them on a Roman holiday.
Philippe Garrel’s laconic portrait of two couples striving to stay together. Painter Frédéric (Louis Garrel) and his actress wife, Angèle (Monica Bellucci), invite struggling actor Paul (Jérôme Robart) and his girlfriend Elisabeth (Céline Sallette) to Rome for the summer, only to involve them in their imploding relationship, brought about by past infidelities and Frédéric’s aloof, domineering attitude. Tonally complemented by the Velvet Underground legend John Cale’s moody score, Garrel’s direction—exhibiting a fondness for long takes—has a charged tranquility that imbues the proceedings with edgy energy even when the plot fumbles around with superfluous asides (like Elisabeth’s sleepwalking) or emphasizes its political divides too starkly via the differing worldviews of fat cat Frédéric and socialist pseudo-revolutionary Paul. Although Angèle’s religious faith and Frédéric’s belief in luck seem like strained attempts at adding heft to the material, the film nevertheless works up a potent dramatic restlessness, derived from the push-pull between an entitled, obsessive Frédéric and Bellucci’s quietly chaotic Angèle. In Angèle’s prolonged dance at a party with an alluring stranger, Garrel captures a striking, thrilling sense of the simultaneous constriction and freedom that’s fundamental to monogamous love.
Flashing back to the main narrative reveals that the woman is Angele (Monica Bellucci), an Italian actress, while the man in the car is Frederic (Louis Garrel), a French painter. They're married and live in Rome.
A few minutes later, the film's narrator makes his first appearance on screen. He's Paul (Jerome Robart), who plays bit parts in movies. So does Elisabeth (Celine Sallette), who meets Paul when they appear in a French Resistance drama. Soon, they're living together.
Also soon, Paul and Elisabeth are sharing Frederic and Angele's large apartment. The painter, who seems to be independently wealthy, likes having them around, and the underemployed actors enjoy their hosts — and the free rent.
Too much togetherness can be problem, though, especially when needy Elisabeth begins to fear that Paul is falling for Angele. But couple No. 2's problems are minor compared with the turmoil between Frederic and Angele, both of whom are frequently unfaithful and periodically spiteful.
None of these conflicts has any great urgency, and the film's heady themes — art, fidelity, religion, death, the search for meaning — are merely invoked rather than explored. One oddity is the casting: Bellucci is 18 years older than Louis Garrel, which is unusual enough to rate some comment but doesn't. (The fictional marriage must be a nod to the actor's real-life relationship with actress Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who is the same age as Bellucci.)
The scenario recalls Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt, another tale of an actress who comes to disdain her husband. Both movies are set in and around the Italian film industry, but Godard had a lot more fun with that fact. Philippe Garrel uses the movie-set vignettes mostly to punctuate the talkier scenes with action, although that French Resistance movie suggests one possible theme: Earlier generations had a sense of purpose lacking in kids today.
For cinephiles who like to connect the dots, A Burning Hot Summer offers links galore. Philippe Garrel is directing his son, and there's a cameo by his father (playing Louis' grandfather).
The youngest Garrel also appeared in his dad's Regular Lovers, the 2005 film that attracted more international attention than any of the director's efforts in decades. It was co-written by Marc Chodolenko, who also helped script this movie, and was set in politically charged 1968 Paris — as was Bernardo Bertolucci's 2002 The Dreamers, which also starred Louis Garrel.
The once-happy marriage between brooding painter Frederic and his movie-star wife Angele hits the rocks when another couple joins them on a Roman holiday.
Philippe Garrel’s laconic portrait of two couples striving to stay together. Painter Frédéric (Louis Garrel) and his actress wife, Angèle (Monica Bellucci), invite struggling actor Paul (Jérôme Robart) and his girlfriend Elisabeth (Céline Sallette) to Rome for the summer, only to involve them in their imploding relationship, brought about by past infidelities and Frédéric’s aloof, domineering attitude. Tonally complemented by the Velvet Underground legend John Cale’s moody score, Garrel’s direction—exhibiting a fondness for long takes—has a charged tranquility that imbues the proceedings with edgy energy even when the plot fumbles around with superfluous asides (like Elisabeth’s sleepwalking) or emphasizes its political divides too starkly via the differing worldviews of fat cat Frédéric and socialist pseudo-revolutionary Paul. Although Angèle’s religious faith and Frédéric’s belief in luck seem like strained attempts at adding heft to the material, the film nevertheless works up a potent dramatic restlessness, derived from the push-pull between an entitled, obsessive Frédéric and Bellucci’s quietly chaotic Angèle. In Angèle’s prolonged dance at a party with an alluring stranger, Garrel captures a striking, thrilling sense of the simultaneous constriction and freedom that’s fundamental to monogamous love.
Flashing back to the main narrative reveals that the woman is Angele (Monica Bellucci), an Italian actress, while the man in the car is Frederic (Louis Garrel), a French painter. They're married and live in Rome.
A few minutes later, the film's narrator makes his first appearance on screen. He's Paul (Jerome Robart), who plays bit parts in movies. So does Elisabeth (Celine Sallette), who meets Paul when they appear in a French Resistance drama. Soon, they're living together.
Also soon, Paul and Elisabeth are sharing Frederic and Angele's large apartment. The painter, who seems to be independently wealthy, likes having them around, and the underemployed actors enjoy their hosts — and the free rent.
Too much togetherness can be problem, though, especially when needy Elisabeth begins to fear that Paul is falling for Angele. But couple No. 2's problems are minor compared with the turmoil between Frederic and Angele, both of whom are frequently unfaithful and periodically spiteful.
None of these conflicts has any great urgency, and the film's heady themes — art, fidelity, religion, death, the search for meaning — are merely invoked rather than explored. One oddity is the casting: Bellucci is 18 years older than Louis Garrel, which is unusual enough to rate some comment but doesn't. (The fictional marriage must be a nod to the actor's real-life relationship with actress Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who is the same age as Bellucci.)
The scenario recalls Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt, another tale of an actress who comes to disdain her husband. Both movies are set in and around the Italian film industry, but Godard had a lot more fun with that fact. Philippe Garrel uses the movie-set vignettes mostly to punctuate the talkier scenes with action, although that French Resistance movie suggests one possible theme: Earlier generations had a sense of purpose lacking in kids today.
For cinephiles who like to connect the dots, A Burning Hot Summer offers links galore. Philippe Garrel is directing his son, and there's a cameo by his father (playing Louis' grandfather).
The youngest Garrel also appeared in his dad's Regular Lovers, the 2005 film that attracted more international attention than any of the director's efforts in decades. It was co-written by Marc Chodolenko, who also helped script this movie, and was set in politically charged 1968 Paris — as was Bernardo Bertolucci's 2002 The Dreamers, which also starred Louis Garrel.
