A Burning Hot Summer

My wife and I saw this film at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival under the title "That Summer." This film repeatedly employs what I call "tableau and talk" as it focuses on a visual--perhaps a wall inside a home or an outdoor vista--and then has an off-camera voice-over talk (or more precisely drone) on about something. The film that we saw pretty much opens with the climactic scene so the audience knows very early on where this is headed. It is a film about two couples though the more famous and prosperous couple (Louis Garrel and Monica Bellucci)get the lion's share of the attention. Despite their successes, this couple is clearly more troubled and less happy. They seem to take turns sabotaging the relationship and their actions make neither especially sympathetic. This severely constrains audience investment in the unfolding tragedy. As one may clearly gather from my rating of the film, I was very disappointed. However, I don't think my reaction was atypical for that audience as this was the only festival film out of 30 we saw in Toronto last year for which no one applauded at the end. Every other film that we watched received at least a smattering of applause even though it may have been characterized as polite or even half-hearted.