Lumiere d’ete / Summer Light (1943) DVD9 Eclipse Series, download for free

Jun07

Lumiere d’ete / Summer Light (1943) DVD9 Eclipse Series

by movieworld on June 7th, 2016 at 18:51

Produced in the midst of the German occupation, the lavish, multi-character class warfare drama Lumiere D'Ete takes on a different tact from the more straightforward Remorques with mixed but equally enthralling results. Madeline Renaud, who had been so ethereal in Remorques, takes on a more grounded turn here as Cri-Cri, a woman who gave up a glamorous life as a dancer in Paris to be with her lover, Patrice (Paul Bernard) in the mountainous, forbidding terrain of France's Provencal region. While running a gleaming hotel in the off-season, Cri-Cri plays host to vivid array of characters while lamenting the circumstances (which involved Patrice's late wife) that got her there in the first place. With the arrival of a pretty guest, Michele (Madeleine Robinson), and her boorish painter beau, Roland (Pierre Brasseur), Cri-Cri's subtle resentment over being stranded boils over into jealousy when the arrogant, wealthy Patrice starts taking an interest in Michele. Meanwhile Julien (Georges Marchal), a rugged young miner who is working at a nearby dam-blasting site, reasonably tries to sway Michele from the perpetually soused Roland, arguing that an intelligent young woman like her deserves better. After Patrice hires Roland for a project at his sprawling estate with the ulterior motive of getting closer to Michele, over Cri-Cri's objections, the fever-pitch emotions between the four (along with Julien) reaches a climax during a hedonistic, lavish costume ball on the grounds of the estate.