Zomerhitte (2008)
Genre: Drama / Romance
Duration: 100 minuten
Alternative title: Summer Heat
Country:
Netherlands
Directed by: Monique van de Ven
Stars: Sophie Hilbrand, Waldemar Torenstra and Jeroen Willems
IMDb score:
5,2 (1.524)
Releasedate: 20 March 2008
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Zomerhitte plot
During a sweltering summer on Texel, photographer Bob (Waldemar Torenstra) meets history student Kathleen (Sophie Hilbrand). When he later bumps into her at the disco, where she has a summer job, he finds her being picked up by an old man known as "The Mummy". Then Bob meets Federici, who, like him, is impressed by the beautiful Kathleen. Over the next few days, a mysterious bond develops between the two men. Bob - meanwhile captivated by Kathleen - closely follows the meetings between Kathleen and The Mummy, who does not seem entirely reliable. Who is he, and what is he actually doing on the island? When Bob unravels the mysteries surrounding The Mummy and Kathleen with Federici's help, they stumble upon a perilous and complex conspiracy. The question is whether the love between Bob and Kathleen can withstand this.
Reviews & comments
Quido
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- 14649 messages
- 6140 votes
Apart from the wavering and occasionally clumsy scenario, there is little to criticize about the film. Lex Brand's dynamic widescreen cinematography captures beautiful and atmospheric images and is intense and close to the characters. By choosing to handle the camera separately, the actions gain considerably more speed and narrative power. Both aspects are further enhanced by the professional editing of Job ter Burg, who chooses not to let the shots last too long. At a number of moments he puts more fire into an action on the screen by placing a hard 'schnitt', which not only supports the emotions of the characters, but also makes it more accessible to the viewer. All this is accompanied and supported by the atmospheric soundtrack by Christian Henson.
Due to the lack of suspense and deep drama, Summer Heat is not the brooding thriller or heartbreaking love drama it could have been, but beyond that the film offers beautiful graphics, excellent acting and a fine technical care. The fact that the film also concludes in an effective feel-good manner and thus makes the viewer leave the cinema with a good feeling, make a visit to the cinema a more than pleasant pastime.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Lennert
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- 2412 messages
- 1400 votes
A large portion of Dutch junk. Waldemor Torenstra is starting to grow for me in his role as one of the most unnatural actors we have in this country, while I have not even seen Hilbrandt attempt to make her think anything other than reading texts. I remember liking the first few chapters of the book in terms of Bob and Kathleen's meeting, but the way the two 'actors' behave towards each other here is just silly.
Clumsiness is what characterizes the entire film. Of that typical Dutch film school that no one really speaks and where everyone lets each other finish talking neatly while they watch it done. You could also sweep me up at the scene where an owl suddenly pulls out someone's eye, which came on wonderfully out of nowhere and also had no further impact on the story. The crooks were also of Donald Duck level ( the masks were just missing), where it was especially painful how an actor like Cees Geel cannot even save himself.
The Federici subplot was slightly better than the exploitative relationship between Bob and Kathleen, but was not a highlight. Most of all I was annoyed by the strange and quite pointless exploitative scenes about the Kathleen character. I usually can laugh at the joke about Dutch films promoting naked nakedness and often it doesn't bother me, but here I found it especially tasteless and strange. Now I remember Wolkers' obsession with armpit hair from the book, but was it really portrayed this way?
But good, badly written, boringly filmed, lousy acting and above all laughable instead of exciting. Junk with a capital T.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Movsin
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- 8331 messages
- 8448 votes
Still, a not so immediately acceptable story. An adventure, a generous portion of nakedness, beautiful but useless. Level station novel and the merging of the film is not always so happy after all. On top of that comes a rather mediocre acting
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