My Summer of Love (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Menu Animation & Audio Interviews-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	82:41
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (66:24)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Pawel Pawlikowski
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Nathalie Press Emily Blunt Paddy Considine Dean Andrews Michelle Byrne Paul Antony-Barber Lynette Edwards Kathryn Sumner
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Goldfrapp Will Gregory

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Watching much of the current output of movies, it’s often easy to become disillusioned by the quality of what is being served up. Once in a while, however, a film comes along that shows that creative people who don’t just follow the accepted conventions are still out there making movies. My Summer of Love from Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski is just such a film.

    Set in a rural West Yorkshire village, the story centres on Mona (Natalie Press), a working class teenager living with her older brother Phil (Paddy Considine). They live together above a pub called the 'Swan' that they have inherited from their deceased parents. Phil has had a violent past and has spent time in jail, but has now found God and has decided to convert the pub into a place of worship for his born again Christian friends.

    Mona is desperately looking for somebody to connect with. Her mother has died of cancer and she never knew her father. Her married boyfriend recently broke off their affair in a cruel and hurtful way. She feels alienated from a brother that she feels she no longer knows and she says she misses the old Phil. Mona meets the upper class and pampered Tamsin (Emily Blunt), who lives nearby with her parents on a sprawling estate. Both are a bit wary of each other at first but an intense relationship soon develops as the two learn about each other and use the other as an emotional crutch for their own problems. In Tamsin she finds someone exciting, mysterious and somebody she feels she can really confide in.

    Phil is very suspicious of Tamsin and her motivations. His new religious fervour leads him to believe that the devil may be at play behind Tamsin’s actions. In a scene later in the film where Tamsin professes a desire to discover God to Phil, we are left to wonder if she really is who she appears or if everything we have seen has just been a well constructed act.

    The film is beautifully paced. As the relationship between Mona and Tamsin becomes more intense the relationship between Mona and Phil becomes far more strained, especially when he tries to force his new-found relationship with God onto Mona in an attempt to “save” her.

    The thing I really liked about this film was that the characters are very real and believable. This is a gritty film and one that shuns many of the Hollywood conventions. No character in this film is perfect and always right or always wrong. These are all flawed characters looking for fulfilment and meaning in their lives. Their methods may not be the best or always correct but we can understand them. A real gem.

Video

    The transfer is very good although the film has quite a grainy look.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. I could not find definitive information about the original theatrical aspect ratio of this film but it’s reasonable to assume it was 1.85:1. The transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image exhibits pleasing levels of sharpness and detail. The image is smooth and very film-like in appearance. The image has quite noticeable film grain which probably reflects the low budget nature of the film. I also noticed that the focus was not always perfect giving some scenes and shots a soft look. Shadow detail was generally quite good although detail fell down a little in some darker interior scenes such as at 18:02. No low level noise was observed in the transfer.

    Colours were always very well saturated and accurate and seemed natural at all times.

    No MPEG artefacts were observed and aliasing was also not an issue with the transfer. The film print used is very good and I didn’t notice any obvious dirt or print damage.

    There are no subtitles on this disc.

    This is a dual layered disc that is RDSL encoded. The layer change occurs at 66:24 which is a cut between scenes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sound mix is very good and when decoded in Dolby Pro Logic II provides a decent surround soundtrack.

    The English soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was generally clear and easy to understand with no noticeable audio sync issues.

    When decoded using Dolby Pro-Logic II the surround channels are well used to add ambience and atmosphere to the soundtrack. For instance, a scene in a forest at 28:57 utilizes the surrounds very effectively to envelop the listener with the sounds and life of the forest.

    My subwoofer only really seemed to be utilized for the music score.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The only extra of note on this DVD is some interviews with the director and cast. These are interesting but a more thorough extra package would have been nice.

Menu

    The main menu contains some limited animation. The menus are 16x9 enhanced and contain background music.

Interviews x 4

    This is a series of interesting interviews with the three main cast members and the director. The actors Nathalie Press, Emily Blunt and Paddy Considine discuss how they came to get their roles, what preparations they took for their roles, their characters' motivations, their relationships with the other cast and their relationship with the director. Director Pawel Pawlikowski discusses how the film got made, searching for the locations, his working relationship with the actors and much more.

    These interviews are all very fascinating and a cut above the normal interviews you normally find on DVDs. These are well worth a watch once you have viewed the film.

Theatrical Trailer

    I was unable to find any reviews of the Region 1 DVD as it is only just being released as I write this review. From the information I have gathered the comparison is as follows:

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on:

• Audio Commentary with director Pawel Pawlikowski
• Dolby Digital 5.1 Soundtrack
• DTS 5.1

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on:

• Dolby Digital 2.0 Soundtrack
• Interviews x4

    Despite the quality of the interviews the Region 1 DVD clearly appears to be the version of choice.

    I really enjoyed My Summer of Love. It's a gritty, low key film but one with some genuinely interesting characters. This film is a real gem.

    The transfer is very good although the film has quite a grainy look.

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 Soundtrack is effective when decoded in Dolby Pro Logic II but a full 5.1 soundtrack would have been nice.

    The only extra of note on this DVD is some interviews with the director and cast. These are interesting but a more thorough extras package would have been nice.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall