{"id":12111,"date":"2015-08-30T11:39:21","date_gmt":"2015-08-30T15:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12111"},"modified":"2015-08-30T11:39:21","modified_gmt":"2015-08-30T15:39:21","slug":"br-summer-lovers-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=12111","title":{"rendered":"BR: Summer Lovers (1982)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"SummerLovers1982_BR\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>:\u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 August 10, 2015<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Romance \/ Drama<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0An American couple engage is a m\u00e9nage a trois\u00a0with a French archeologist on the exotic Greek island of Santorini.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Audio Commentary by writer-director Randal Kleiser \/ Isolated Mono Music & Sound Effects Track \/ 1982 featurette: \u201cThe Making of Summer Lovers\u201d (12:14) \/ Screen Tests with Hart Bochner, Patrick Swayze, Valerie Quennessen, and Barbara Rush (15:10) \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ Bonus 1997 Documentary: \u201cBasil Poledouris: His Life and Music (48:13) \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film Historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

After achieving a meteoric career boost with Grease<\/strong> (1978) and The Blue Lagoon <\/strong>(1980), Randal Kleiser took time off in Greece, and quickly noticed the swathes of young adults arriving by boat and plane, camping on the nude beaches, and engaging in assorted relationships before heading back home by fall season. An idea for a m\u00e9nage a trois (whoopee among three) formulated, and within months Kleiser had written a script, pared down to its most elemental dialogue so visuals would ultimately tell the story of two Americans whose lives are changed by a fellow vacationer from France on the island of Santorini.<\/p>\n

Michael (Peter Gallagher) and Cathy\u2019s (Daryl Hannah) efforts to deepen their 5 year relationship in Greece over 8 weeks undergoes a transformation when a threesome develops with Lina (Valerie Quennessen), a resident archeologist and neighbour across from their little hillside rental home. Put another way: boy meets new girl, new girl meets old girl, boy gets both girls, new girl leaves couple for odd boy (Hans van Tongeren), threesome reunite in harmony before End Credits.<\/p>\n

Summer Lovers<\/strong> was a box office hit \u2013 it even managed to be broadcast on TV in an incoherent edited version \u2013 and while very much geared for the North American market (sexual preference is fixed in having two women attracted not to each other, but one man), it is a valiant attempt by a mainstream American filmmaker to present a R-rated European love story with a level of candor and nudity unheard of for the U.S. market.<\/p>\n

As several critics have pointed out \u2013 and Kleiser himself, on the Blu-ray\u2019s commentary track \u2013 it\u2019s also a snapshot of a pre-AIDS world where a variety of sexual relationships could be explored without biological fear; everyone is happy, friendly, and living out fantasies under the gorgeous Greek sun. (Kleiser points out several of the production\u2019s skilled make-up, art direction, and photographic artists who succumbed to the disease in the following years.)<\/p>\n

Kleiser\u2019s directorial skills reside as a visualist, having an impeccable eye for composition, colours, and emphasizing drama through spacial relationships between characters and their immediate environment, but as a dialogue writer, most of what\u2019s said by the cast is fairly banal, making it easy to dismiss the film\u2019s dramatic underpinnings as bubbleheaded. Once in a while the minimalist dialogue clicks, capturing unease, nervousness, or mystery, but it\u2019s the images and sounds that convey what fans have regarded as an honest portrayal of a threesome.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also easy to write off the film\u2019s soundtrack as just a pastiche of top hits designed to sell a record, but Kleiser was pretty prescient in being his own music supervisor, dropping into scenes as source cues or now-classic montage underscore a variety of songs from international bands to convey the melting pot of international lovers who flock to the Greek islands during the summertime.\u00a0Blue Lagoon<\/strong> composer Basil Poledouris did contribute a score, but they\u2019re mostly short theme statements that emerge from the background when there\u2019s a genuine need for more introspective music that advances the emotional relationships between the three main characters.<\/p>\n

When stripped of its North American conventions \u2013 the dialogue, songs, montages, and plot conventions (including the feel-good finale) \u2013 Summer Lovers<\/strong> may be one of the most daring attempts by an American director (up until 1982) to evoke European sensibilities within a purely escapist container. The nudity is the film\u2019s most risqu\u00e9 aspect, but to Kleiser\u2019s credit, it loses its sensationalism once the three-way romance emerges, although being a scenario created by a mainstream director, there\u2019s still clunky dialogue designed to explain things to average audiences which European filmmakers would\u2019ve junked altogether in favour of minimal statements, reactions, and perhaps more provocative action.<\/p>\n

One could also presume the chances of a happy ending \u2013 Lina riding to the airport just in time to stop her companions from leaving, and finishing off their m\u00e9nage over the remaining 3 weeks, all to the bombast of two Chicago power ballads \u2013 would\u2019ve been rather slim in a Euro production.<\/p>\n

Kleiser\u2019s comedic injections are meant to lighten the tone after a heavier emotional scene, but they don\u2019t always work: the trio\u2019s visits to a music video set being shot on a nearby island are pretty ridiculous, and the \u2018sudden\u2019 arrival of Cathy\u2019s mother (Flamingo Road<\/strong>\u2019s Barbara Rush) and her friend (Carole Cook) is an excuse to feature awkward encounters between conservative American parents and their liberated kids. Two scenes \u2013 mom\u2019s arrival, and a dinner \u2013 are played for laughs \u2013 but the latter does lead into a dance club montage which signals a key shift in the trio’s relationship.<\/p>\n

That hint of a looming breakup works, but it\u2019s also the point where the drama loses its steam, and characters wander and pose in meticulously composed shots with music: montages interrupted by brief arguments, and the inevitable separation of Lina from the threesome before a classic \/ clich\u00e9d finale; some of the roles within the template are split and recombined with slightly different DNA, but it\u2019s still a boy meets girl \/ loses girl \/ gets girl scenario.<\/p>\n

Kleiser\u2019s happy ending ensured audiences walked out feeling peppy, knowing all ended well, even though the three would ultimately separate once Michael and Cathy\u2019s cottage rental had run its full 8 week term, sending them back to the U.S. in an emotionally and sexually enlightened state.<\/p>\n

As Kleiser states right at the beginning of his full-length commentary track, fans have been screaming for a proper home video release for years, and Twilight Time\u2019s gorgeous special edition features a properly composed widescreen transfer (the old MGM DVD zooms into full screen after the opening titles) and extras that apparently stem from the director\u2019s own archives.<\/p>\n

The newly recorded commentary has Kleiser prepared with notes, quotes, and small ephemera, and while he\u2019s often reading, it\u2019s not wholly robotic and is very scene-specific. He contrasts his own observations and recollections with quotes from fans and bloggers, good naturedly taking to task critics, including some funny dismissals from highly conservative viewers who apparently never read the film\u2019s synopsis and emerged aghast at the nudity and threesome material.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a pretty fact-packed commentary, and he lauds Greek cinematographer Dimitris Papakonstadis who took over shooting when credited DOP Timothy Galfas didn\u2019t quite work out. Kleiser also points out Poledouris\u2019 cameo when Michael and Cathy arrive, and describes the various locations which he meticulously plots out early into the film to ensure the audiences knows the geography of the stunning islands.<\/p>\n

Not mentioned (but deserving of attention) is editor Robert Gordon (who edited Kleiser\u2019s Blue Lagoon<\/strong> and later Grandview<\/strong>, U.S.A.<\/strong>), and the sharp montages which occasionally contain sophisticated sound overlaps of dialogue that compress action without feeling forced.<\/p>\n

Whereas MGM\u2019s DVD was extras-free, TT\u2019s disc features the theatrical trailer, a rare montage of screen tests featuring Hart Bochner and Patrick Swayze (whom Kleiser would ultimately cast in his next film, Grandview, U.S.A.<\/strong>) with Quennessen by a pool, and the promo featurette \u201cThe Making of Summer Lovers\u201d which must have been aimed at Pay TV stations in light of the heavy nudity that\u2019s interspersed with brief cast & crew interviews. (In Kleiser\u2019s commentary, the director notes the work of a fashion make-up artist flown to Greece to create Quennessen\u2019s \u2018eye design,\u2019 a move that seems excessive until one sees the actress in the audition footage, and realizes the new look gave the character of Lina extra depth and power, especially in her intro scenes.)<\/p>\n

Of the main cast members, the film forms a memorial for Quennessen, who died in a car accident in 1989. Her best-known works include\u00a0French Postcards<\/strong>\u00a0(1979) and\u00a0Conan the Barbarian\u00a0<\/strong>(1982). Actor van Tongeren debuted in Paul Verhoeven\u2019s\u00a0Spetters<\/strong>\u00a0(1980), and was cast in\u00a0Summer Lovers<\/strong>\u00a0purely by accident when spotted vacationing in Greece. Soon after the filming, he committed suicide.<\/p>\n

Poledouris\u2019 music is presented in an isolated mono music & effects mix, which perhaps hints the original score tapes no longer exist. (Besides the original soundtrack LP that reproduces two cues in full stereo, this is as good as it gets.)<\/p>\n

Kleiser and Poledouris were both USC film school alumni \u2013 the former edited the latter\u2019s short directorial effort Glut<\/strong> (1967) \u2013 and would collaborate on Blue Lagoon<\/a><\/strong> (1980), Summer Lovers<\/strong> (1982), White Fang<\/strong> (1991), and It\u2019s My Party<\/strong> (1996), and although the director doesn\u2019t discuss the composer in the commentary track, Poledouris is showcased in the bonus 1997 documentary Basil Poledouris: His Life and Music<\/a><\/strong> (1997), an hour-long film produced by TT\u2019s Nick Redman ( and reviewed separately).<\/p>\n

For fans of the film, this special edition is a must-have, boasting gorgeous visuals, a solid 2.0 stereo mix with decent bass, and definitive extras that contextualize a not necessarily great drama, but a notable attempt to create a commercial hybrid which few directors have since recaptured with such candor. The lead cast of Gallagher (who reportedly replaced a bailed Dennis Quaid just prior to principal photography), Hannah, and Quennessen are extremely attractive and fit their roles perfectly, and 33 years later Summer Lovers<\/strong> is also a time capsule of a sleepy island community that\u2019s been since upgraded to a more trendy, pricey, upscale escape for the jet set.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2015 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a> —\u00a0Composer Filmography<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After achieving a meteoric career boost with Grease (1978) and The Blue Lagoon (1980), Randal Kleiser took time off in Greece, and quickly noticed the swathes of young adults arriving by boat and plane, camping on the nude beaches, and engaging in assorted relationships…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[622,3910,3911,3909,2119,3907,3908],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-39l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12111"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12126,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12111\/revisions\/12126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}