Synopsis
Paul reflects on the summer he met Angèle and Frédéric as he watches his friend being laid to rest.
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Cast
- Monica BellucciAngèle
- Louis GarrelFrédéric
- Céline SalletteÉlisabeth
- Jérôme RobartPaul
- Vladislav GalardRoland
- Vincent MacaigneAchille
- Maurice GarrelThe grandfather
Recommendations
- 80
Time Out
There are subtler, more allusive films about stormy conflicts of the heart, but A Burning Hot Summer wisely knows when and how to surgically slice directly to the bone. It's a bad romance of the highest order. - 80
The New York Times
In A Burning Hot Summer (a pulpy title that sounds better in the original, "Un Été Brûlant), two men fall into friendship, and while little happens, everything is at stake. - 70
Village Voice
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. - 50
Slant Magazine
The Louis Garrel character's mixture of self-containment and alleged possessiveness over his wife fails to convince, if not to irritate. - 50
Chicago Sun-Times
A Burning Hot Summer failed to persuade me of any reason for its existence. - 38
New York Post
It's apt that the Rome weather in this stodgy film, contrary to the title, seems quite temperate.
