Director: Laura Luchetti
Writers: Laura Luchetti
Stars: Deva Cassel, Nicolas Maupas, Andrea Bosca
Synopsis: Ginia, seventeen, experiences the ecstasy and turmoil that characterize the mysterious journey into adulthood. Meeting with Amelia confronts her with new and shocking emotions. But only by recognizing this love, she can be herself.
Summer is the time of year we anticipate the most, especially when we are young. Along with plenty of sunny vacation days and, depending on the city, trips to the beach, there’s room for a person to reflect on how the year has gone so far. To describe it more profoundly, those hot summer days and moonlit nights are not only a time for fun and escape but also for relaxation, self-discovery, reflection, and potential change. And, if you ask me, it is the perfect time to do so. And sometimes, a specific “somebody” helps you along the way. It can be a summer fling or someone you are close to. But what matters is how that person affects your life during those months and if those moments with them will shape your life for the better.
Because this sort of scenario often happens during our lives, maybe once or twice (if you’re lucky, even more), filmmakers worldwide have found a way to capture the moments in an array of means. They aim to express and replicate the emotions felt during these encounters. Depending on the story’s angle, these films range from palpable and relatable to purposefully distant and devastating. The most recent of these summer romance tales is Laura Luchetti’s sophomore feature The Beautiful Summer (La bella estate), which had its world premiere at this year’s Locarno Film Festival on the Piazza Grande. By reading the incidentally tongue-in-cheek title, you immediately know what type of story this film will tell (it’s almost too obvious). Luchetti takes a Guadagino Call Me By Your Name-inspired approach to her new work, albeit without the Italian auteur’s unique way of expressing tenderness and efficacy in newly lit and fractured relationships.
While Luchetti may struggle in presenting those types of emotional cinematic manifestations to us, especially when you put it side to side with the aforementioned Oscar-winning picture, she makes up for it by making sure the cast reflects every feeling in the marginally syrupy narrative can be seen and perceive in a humanistic manner, at least for its first two acts. Set in 1938, The Beautiful Summer’s premise is pretty simple. It is a story we have seen plenty of times: two strangers meet, and the trajectory of their lives is changed forever because of it – a slowly igniting fire that becomes a bright light in their lives after those summer days before their destinies change by a future cataclysmic event. While cliched, it is a proper description, as the two leading ladies seem to be in flux for different reasons.
In the film’s first few shots, we see a young woman, Ginia (Yle Vianello, known for her work in Alice Rohrwacher’s works), running through the Turin streets. It looks like she’s a woman out of time in a rapidly changing world. Her blonde hair brushes against the calm whispering winds of uncertainty, and her facial expressions determine such sentiment. Having just moved from the countryside, Ginia seems to be thinking about the many possibilities that might arise, yet she doubts the choices that have been presented to her, which led to her move. Nevertheless, she’s desperate for adventure. Ginia seeks something exciting to soothe her boredom and slowly-building gloom. And that’s when she meets someone special during a trip to the beach with some of her (and her brother’s) friends. That person is Amelia (Deva Cassel), a model she meets while having an affair with a local painter.
The instant Amelia looks into Ginia’s eyes, you know something will happen between the two. Just by the glances on their faces, you can perceive the wavelengths of their relationship’s trajectory, both developing joyful and saddening moments. As expected with this type of story, these women are far different from each other in terms of personality. While Ginia is more restrained and quiet, Amelia is the opposite; she’s more sensual and outgoing – almost up for anything. It goes back to the aspect of Ginia feeling like a woman gradually running out of time. You can perceive the same thing in Amelia’s persona. Via her “up for anything” personality, you feel she is avoiding something that might (or might not) shift her life for the worse. At least one thing’s for sure, Amelia helps Ginia get the courage she needs to become her true self.
This dynamic brings a fast-paced rush to the young Ginia’s life, ending in some equally beautiful and delicate, in a way overarchingly schmaltzy, moments. The specifics of their relationship’s development aren’t that easy to predict. But the opening and closing of each chapter is. There’s the usual falling apart and getting back together, each person missing each other yet avoiding them, the culminating reconciliation, amongst other scenes. You are not bothered by your knowledge of these tropes, as Laura Luchetti takes her time to develop each emotional story beat in the first two acts. The issue is that in The Beautiful Summer’s third and closing act, the delicateness of its passionate story is lost due to rushing the character’s arcs and leaving its side characters on the side after being critical players in the story. You get that constantly returning sensation of running out of time. Instead of letting the narrative simmer for a while, the film closes things out rapidly.
And it is a shame because, although some unnecessarily syrupy moments were scattered across its 110-minute runtime, you grow fond of Ginia and Amelia. Though Vianello and Cassel do great acting work, it feels like you never got the chance to connect with them on a deeper level. Even if you knew where things were going, you wanted to perceive those beautiful moments with them together, as each second they spend together makes The Beautiful Summer shine brighter. Nonetheless, the abruptness of its curtain-closing act makes those moments feel somewhat pointless. We spent all those moments with these two characters just so that what’s supposed to be the most impactful and definitive moment in their relationship is hastily delivered to us. The first act switched its hurried pacing to fit the calmness and fragility of this slowly building romance. But the ending doesn’t have much reason to conclude with a rush if the characters have finally found peace and ease in their previously quickened lives with each other.
