The opening of this romantic muddle is none the less magical. Some piece of classical music is used with great result. Much like Kubrick does with the Schubert piano piece in Barry Lyndon....aahh..well!!?? Anyways....I'm a sucker for great music and images of lovers to be...aaahhh. Remember the little "close U'r eyes"-scene in The Evil Dead, where Ash is charming his way in on a girl by use of jewelry...?? This moment is also great and features some nice romantic music. Ok.....back to A Long....which is typically 70's Euro style. The story is full of baaad cliches + a honymoontrip to Venice. Later on when the young girl (dies and) is frozen down...the now older man is watching the pictures of that trip. And so on, so on, so on.....get the picture now!!?? The Danish video-release is 94.19 mins long(pal)...full screen...very hard to come by, of course!!
5 Reviews
Lynne Frederick is a must See
lobianco1 October 2001
Lynne Frederick best known to horror fans for her roles in Schizo or Amuck in a rare and wonderful performance. Wife of Pete Sellers She appeared in Prisoner of Zenda. This film released in Italy under the title not shown here : "A Venezia Muore Un' estate Like most Italian films of the 70's it attempts to merge more than one type of film genre into the script. What starts out as a seemingly typical romance drama shot in venice turns into a much different and tragic love story. Lynne Frederick's performances is outstanding, even in this small but powerful drama. She appears nude in several scenes that are romantic and erotic. The first scene in which the two lovers meet is perhaps the best. Great use of symphonic music to convey the eye connection between two strangers. At times a fairy tale while at other times gritty and brutally realistic. Give it a chance if are able to locate it on the internet sites.
Lynne Frederick is stunning but the film borders on the "sexploitation" side
enusayr-163-52958518 November 2014
Warning: Spoilers
The basic plot of the film is decent; a love story followed by tragedy and a loyal, loving husband waiting 40 years to be reunited with his wife. The use of music was successful in aiding the plot and giving it a relevant atmosphere. However, the presentation of the plot is disastrous and superficial.
Anna (Lynne Frederick) falls in love and pursues David (Mark Burns) who is 18 years her senior in real life and looks even older than that in the film. The storyline fails to explain Anna's attraction to David which is contradictory to the social norm of the boy- chasing-girl paradigm instead of the other way around.
Anna is portrayed as a rich college girl who enjoys car racing, partying with her peers, drinking alcohol from victory cups and flirting with older men whom she knows nothing about. David is a workaholic architect who considers his career his mistress and his source of pride.
The sex scenes are gratuitous, adding nothing to the plot. There are several of them interrupting their honeymoon outings and a couple as flashbacks. We already know that married couples have sex on their honeymoons and those prolonged sex scenes are not only gratuitous but make for an uncomfortable viewing, especially with company. The amount of fondling that Mark Burns deals to the private parts of Lynne Frederick's body is distasteful and could be classified as soft-core pornography.
Sex sells, and it seems to me that the makers of the film wanted to make a profit by playing on the sexual fantasies of men, especially older men wishing to be seduced by a beautiful 20-year old (Lynne's age during filming). A better storyline would have served the film better. Lynne Frederick is famous for her "fairytale princess" look which conveys a sense of youthful innocence (see her performance in Phase IV). Her heavy eye makeup during the sex scenes actually hid that natural innocence look since, I assume, it would not be compatible with the distasteful scenes.
It is unfortunate for Lynne Frederick to have been a working actress in the exploitative mess of the early 70's. I recall that she was only 15-years old when they were filming No Blade of Grass, her debut film. In that too is an exploitation scene where her character is raped. The camera was almost touching her bosom as the rapist exposed it and fondled it with his mouth. They never heard of a "nudity clause" back then and I doubt that parental consent was required for an actress under 18 to simulate sex/rape and go nude/topless for the camera.
Overall, this film serves as an example to those who say that sex scenes detract from the plot of a romantic film.
Anna (Lynne Frederick) falls in love and pursues David (Mark Burns) who is 18 years her senior in real life and looks even older than that in the film. The storyline fails to explain Anna's attraction to David which is contradictory to the social norm of the boy- chasing-girl paradigm instead of the other way around.
Anna is portrayed as a rich college girl who enjoys car racing, partying with her peers, drinking alcohol from victory cups and flirting with older men whom she knows nothing about. David is a workaholic architect who considers his career his mistress and his source of pride.
The sex scenes are gratuitous, adding nothing to the plot. There are several of them interrupting their honeymoon outings and a couple as flashbacks. We already know that married couples have sex on their honeymoons and those prolonged sex scenes are not only gratuitous but make for an uncomfortable viewing, especially with company. The amount of fondling that Mark Burns deals to the private parts of Lynne Frederick's body is distasteful and could be classified as soft-core pornography.
Sex sells, and it seems to me that the makers of the film wanted to make a profit by playing on the sexual fantasies of men, especially older men wishing to be seduced by a beautiful 20-year old (Lynne's age during filming). A better storyline would have served the film better. Lynne Frederick is famous for her "fairytale princess" look which conveys a sense of youthful innocence (see her performance in Phase IV). Her heavy eye makeup during the sex scenes actually hid that natural innocence look since, I assume, it would not be compatible with the distasteful scenes.
It is unfortunate for Lynne Frederick to have been a working actress in the exploitative mess of the early 70's. I recall that she was only 15-years old when they were filming No Blade of Grass, her debut film. In that too is an exploitation scene where her character is raped. The camera was almost touching her bosom as the rapist exposed it and fondled it with his mouth. They never heard of a "nudity clause" back then and I doubt that parental consent was required for an actress under 18 to simulate sex/rape and go nude/topless for the camera.
Overall, this film serves as an example to those who say that sex scenes detract from the plot of a romantic film.
great romance / mediocre movie
Sherparsa30 July 2014
Warning: Spoilers
spoiler alert! well, i liked the story of this movie despite having been told not as good as it could have been given a different director perhaps, you know, one without a soap-opera tendencies ...
characters are well rendered, choice of actors and actresses, location, music, twist and turn of the events the way they did with the young girl resurrected after so many years and her now-old romantic husband still waiting for her 'return' and all that ...
i even loved the idea of "today is the first day of the rest of your life" and the fact that the girl promptly realizes she'd better go on rather than stay affectionate to an old dead husband ... (after all, that was the husband wanted too, right?) but, just for the sakes of a romantic fable told to impress people who love to sacrifice for the loves of their lives, couldn't the girl demand in the end (ask at least) the doctor for example, to see if (now that she was living in the 21st century with all the advancements in science and technology that had revived her too) maybe there was a way to hibernate the man's body for a later time in the future and a probable revival from death, so that both of them could live together as an old couple, however for a very short while? or maybe bring them both back their youths so to say maybe? you know, that sort of silly childish hopes romantic lovers do have at times i mean ...
yes, i know this does sound so ridiculous, but the way this story goes in this movie, then why not? ;-) overall, i believe this movie could have been made much better than this even in its own time ...
characters are well rendered, choice of actors and actresses, location, music, twist and turn of the events the way they did with the young girl resurrected after so many years and her now-old romantic husband still waiting for her 'return' and all that ...
i even loved the idea of "today is the first day of the rest of your life" and the fact that the girl promptly realizes she'd better go on rather than stay affectionate to an old dead husband ... (after all, that was the husband wanted too, right?) but, just for the sakes of a romantic fable told to impress people who love to sacrifice for the loves of their lives, couldn't the girl demand in the end (ask at least) the doctor for example, to see if (now that she was living in the 21st century with all the advancements in science and technology that had revived her too) maybe there was a way to hibernate the man's body for a later time in the future and a probable revival from death, so that both of them could live together as an old couple, however for a very short while? or maybe bring them both back their youths so to say maybe? you know, that sort of silly childish hopes romantic lovers do have at times i mean ...
yes, i know this does sound so ridiculous, but the way this story goes in this movie, then why not? ;-) overall, i believe this movie could have been made much better than this even in its own time ...
Must see
Mdefra2543@aol.com11 December 2002
I've seen this movie overseas in the early 1980's, under its itaian title "A Venezia muore un'estate".
The love scenes are tender yet passionate, accompanied by venetian soloists music. It's the story of a strong, firm link that will keep a husband and a wife together during and after her artificially induced sleep. She gets hybernated due to an illness that had no cure at the time. While dealing with the pain with the help of Irene, a common friend of theirs, David (The husband) remenisces this beautiful story since its beginning: The pictures taken in Venice's Piazza San Marco, making love to her, their numerous walks.
She will wake up after twenty years and her love for him is still the same. Albeit their strong feelings and the fact that they are together again, David has aged and won't have enough time to make up for the years he spent apart from his loved one.
I have been looking for this movie for the longest time without any success. If there is anyone who can point me out to some websites that might have this movie please let me know. Thanks.
The love scenes are tender yet passionate, accompanied by venetian soloists music. It's the story of a strong, firm link that will keep a husband and a wife together during and after her artificially induced sleep. She gets hybernated due to an illness that had no cure at the time. While dealing with the pain with the help of Irene, a common friend of theirs, David (The husband) remenisces this beautiful story since its beginning: The pictures taken in Venice's Piazza San Marco, making love to her, their numerous walks.
She will wake up after twenty years and her love for him is still the same. Albeit their strong feelings and the fact that they are together again, David has aged and won't have enough time to make up for the years he spent apart from his loved one.
I have been looking for this movie for the longest time without any success. If there is anyone who can point me out to some websites that might have this movie please let me know. Thanks.
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