Friday, August 23, 2013

Lumière d'été (1943)

DisCina (France)
Directed by Jean Gremillon
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

A young woman (Madeleine Robinson) arrives at an isolated hotel to meet her artist lover (Pierre Brasseur). Several days pass and he doesn't arrive, allowing enough time for a wealthy socialite and young construction worker to develop crushes on her. The painter turns out to be a drunken, irresponsible romantic, an easy target for the eccentric millionaire who invites them to stay at his castle with ulterior motives. He throws an extravagant costume ball, and afterwards the competing lovers all end up together in a car, leading to tragedy. The melodramatics overwhelm the more personal, artistic intentions of the director, and the plot is tied up too neatly in the ending.

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