Product Details

• Actors: Isabelle Adjani, Alain Souchon, Suzanne Flon, Jenny Clève, Maria Machado
• Directors: Jean Becker
• Writers: Sébastien Japrisot
• Producers: Christine Beyout
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: French
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios Ho
• VHS Release Date: June 11, 1987
• Run Time: 133 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300183254
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,440 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Gary W. Tooze, DVDbeaver.com, April 9, 2010

So, One Deadly Summer finally comes to NTSC with a surprisingly strong, progressive, anamorphic (original 1.66) and dual-layered transfer. It has some grand moments - especially the outdoor scenes. Close-ups look great, minimal artifacts - I was impressed!

...I think the release should be commended - it looks very strong for SD and the film itself has gained some stature - even beyond Adjani's gratuitous nudity. The thriller aspects kind of sneak up on you after all the sexuality. A curious and appealing film effort from Becker - certainly worthy of repetition but deserves some discussion supplements. Priced high - but, I don't know - could be very worth it for some. Give it a spin.

DVDTalk.com

French director Jean Becker's 1983 film One Deadly Summer, originally L'ete meurtrier, is a little difficult to describe. Is it a modern iteration of Greek tragedy? Is it an anti-romance? Is it an erotic thriller? Indeed, it has elements of all of these, and more. It is a subtle film, at times uncomfortable, but expertly crafted, and it is given a fine presentation here.

One Deadly Summer is a film that will discomfit many, not the least because of the copious amounts of Isabelle Adjani's bare flesh and the sexual assault themes. This is a film that confronts this kind of material head on, without descending into simple minded black and white oppositions or caricature. Jean Becker delivers an engrossing and subtle film that doesn't pull its punches.

One Deadly Summer is a subtle and impactful film, shot beautifully and masterfully directed by Jean Becker. The cast is superb. The story engaging. And Isabelle Adjani is decidedly easy on the eyes. Her energetic performance is worth attention on its own, but luckily there is much more on display here to enjoy. This is a film worth owning, and watching more than once. Highly recommended.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of Adjani's best, May 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: One Deadly Summer (L'ete Meurtrier) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"l'eté meurtruer" may not be as well known as "the story of Adele H." or "La Reine Margot" in the U.S. But, fans of Isabelle Adjani should most definitely check it out. Once again, Isabelle takes on a very challenging role - this time a mentally unstable young girl plotting revenge against the men (and their families) who brutally raped her mother 19 years ago. Along the way, she struggles to maintain what sanity she has left while coming to grips with her inner deamons. The movie's plot never gets dull and NOTHING is predictible. A multiple Ceasar winner in France, take a look and you'll see why.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deadly indeed!, June 7, 2006

By 

Scott Mcgredy "srelay" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Deadly Summer [Region 2] (DVD)

A sultry summer tale of revenge, violence, desire, sexuality and deception, this psychological suspense film is gripping throughout. Shown from two different viewpoints and with the aid of flashbacks and with a slowly unfolding plot, it's long (2 1/4 hrs.) and fairly hard-to-follow upon first viewing but features superb momentum-inducing acting by Alain Souchon as the hopeful "boyfriend", Suzanne Flon as the deaf aunt - watch her facial expressions!, and especially Isabelle Adjani in an outrageous but moving part. As the lead character - known only as "She" - you either hate or sympathize with her. Either way, Adjani is at the top of her form - which is saying a lot! I shouldn't write any more without revealing the denouement, except, having won four Cesar Awards, this 1983 film, which finally became available in 2010 as Region 0 disc, needs to be seen by fans of smart thrillers.

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deeply uncomfortable viewing., November 16, 2001

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Deadly Summer (L'ete Meurtrier) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

'One Deadly Summer' begins in typical film noir style, with a hapless sap narrating an implied fall from idyllic grace, centring around a femme fatale who, far from being mysterious and unattainable, seems trampishly open and available. It's the old misogynistic story - the security of family and community are disrupted by a sexually predatory woman.

Soon, however, this male controlling consciousness is disrupted by the woman herself, and it is her narrative the film is concerned with, a mystery in which she is an avenging detective. Just as her physical body (her diminutive is 'Elle', emphasising her objectified status) wreaks havoc on the summer-clammy small town she inhabits, so her taking over the traditional male noir role destabilises the narrative. Traditionally, the detective story is told from one reliable point of view, be it an omniscient narrator, a witness or the detective himself. Here narrative is splintered into a variety of conflicting, subjective voices, each story they tell only confirming the unlikeliness of anyone ever finding the 'real' truth.

Most detective stories are concerned with a single crime which the detached detecitve tries to solve. The first ever detective story, however, was Sophocles' play 'Oedipus Rex', in which the investigation of the crime was really into the detective's own origins and his relation to his father. Ditto this film, in which the initial crime and the detective's very existence are horribly linked. Criminal and sexual transgression become indistinguishable, and the various plot developments are driven by the grimmest of Greek tragic ironies. This interrogation of family and community, of buried secrets in the past, is given extra force by allusions to the Nazi Occupation, still a sore memory.

'Summer' is a brilliant film, but not one that is easy to like or enjoy. Its pastoral setting provokes fears of the usual middlebrow wish-fulfilment, but this is filmed here with an almost ugly flatness. The presence of Edith Scob in a minor role and a fairground barrel-organ leitmotif might remind us of Franju's surrealist masterpiece 'Eyes without a face', another story about a girl with father problems driven to madness, and the film has references to sleepwalking and nightmares.

The film's success depends less on Isabelle Adjani's showy performance than Sebastian Japrisot's adaptation of his own novel, with its inventive use of those old cliches, the voiceover and flashback. It inspires journeyman director Becker to imaginative heights not reached before or since. Despite its clever reworkings of conventional noir, though, Becker and Japrisot don't entirely escape the accusation of misogyny - the lingering on woman as object of both desire and sexual violence leaves a sour taste in the mouth.