10:30 P.M. Summer (1966)

Director:

Jules Dassin

Writers:

Marguerite Duras (novel)
Marguerite Duras (adaptation)

Release Date:

28 October 1966 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Claire's body - I never looked at her naked without seeing her with Paul

Plot Keywords:

Foreign Language Adaptation | Madrid Spain | Fugitive | Shower Scene | Hotel

Cast

Melina Mercouri	...	Maria
Romy Schneider	...	Claire
Peter Finch	...	Paul
Julián Mateos	...	Rodrigo Palestra
Isabel María Pérez	...	Judith
Beatriz Savón	...	Rodrigo's Wife

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA | Spain

Language:

English | Spanish | French

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | New Zealand:R16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Argos Films

Movie Connections:

Version of Half Past Ten (2008)

Excellent Dassin film

There's not much information available about this film, but it appears to have been shot in English by Jules Dassin, who had directed Melina Mercouri in the international hit, Never On Sunday, and had gone on to make the equally popular Topkapi. This film is a decidedly smaller and artier affair, based as it is on a Marguerite Duras novel. The look of the film is distinctly 60s, and Romy Schneider never looked more beautiful. Mercouri is excellent as an alcoholic who has fallen out of love with her husband (Peter Finch) and tries to find solace by helping a murderer escape from the Spanish police. Much of the action of the film goes unexplained. There is some truly remarkable photography by Gabor Pogany, an otherwise unheralded Hungarian cinematographer who plied his trade in the Italian film industry of the 50s and 60s to little acclaim. His work here is quite revelatory, at times bringing to mind the German expressionism of the teens and twenties. Overall, an abstract delight not a million miles away from Antonioni's Blow-Up.