Summer Love
Summer Love
An allegorical Western, Summer Love literally begins with a bang. With the audience still sitting in darkness, a shot rings out. A man appears on-screen… dressed in black… bleeding… dying. It is THE STRANGER (Karel Roden), a harbinger of death, a nameless catalyst foreshadowing events to come.
As the film unfolds the characters are introduced not by name, but by what they represent. THE WOMAN (Katarzyna Figura) is a fading beauty who can’t quite conceal the scars of her past. THE SHERIFF (Boguslaw Linda) is an alcoholic, lovelorn shell of a man who is literally mutilating himself over losing The Woman. THE BIG MAN (Krzytof Zaleski) is a fat, jealous cohort of The Sheriff who lusts after The Woman.
One day, The Stranger comes to town on horseback with THE WANTED MAN (Val Kilmer) who he retrieved at the site of a massacre in the film’s opening scenes. The Stranger has come to collect the bounty money. He winds up getting roped into playing The Sheriff’s sadistic gambling game and loses The Wanted Man to the gloating Sheriff. Fed up this self-destructive ploy, The Woman storms out of the saloon. Later that night, The Woman in a state of desperation seduces The Stranger. All hell breaks loose after their night of passion. A posse is formed under the Sheriff’s inept leadership and an epic manhunt ensues.
Told in a highly visual style, Summer Love recounts a tale of love, pain, redemption and death. On a surface the story is as old as time: Man looses Woman...Woman wants a new life…Stranger comes to town. Summer Love relies less on dialogue than upon on fast paced, meticulously composed images. They lead the audience into the hearts and minds of the characters creating the visual tableaux that tell their stories.
MAIN CAST
THE SHERIFF
Boguslaw Linda is regarded as one of the most popular and respected leading men in Polish cinema. He has collaborated with highly regarded directors such as Krzysztof Kieslowski, Andrzej Wajda and Andrzej Zulawski. Linda has starred in over seventy feature films, including most recently Quo Vadis? (2001). His many Polish, Hungarian and Swedish language film projects include Przypadek, Psy, Reich, Sezon na Leszcza, Pan Tadeusz, Operacja Samum, Je treba zabít Sekala, Demony wojny wedlug Goi and Zloto dezerterów.
THE STRANGER
Karel Roden, a Czech actor, is an art house star in his home country as well as a seasoned actor within the Hollywood film industry. His Hollywood films include The Bourne Supremacy, 15 Minutes with Robert DeNiro, Running Scared, Dead Fish, Bulletproof Monk among others. He has worked twice with cult action director Guillermo Del Toro on Blade II, and Hellboy. His most acclaimed Czech films credits include Bathory, Vaterland – Lovecky denik and Sklapni a zastrel me
THE WOMAN
Katarzyna Figura, an irrefutable star of stage and screen in Poland, was dubbed the Polish Marilyn Monroe following her breakthrough role in Pociag do Hollywood in 1987. She appeared in Roman Polanski’s Oscar winning World War II film, The Pianist, Robert Altman’s Pret-a-Porter as well as Ruggero Deodato’s Italian slasher, The Washing Machine. Her Polish filmography includes Zurek, Zemsta, Kariera Nikosia Dyzmy and Ga, Ga - Chwala bohaterom.
THE WANTED MAN
Val Kilmer is a Hollywood icon and box office draw whose filmography includes leading roles in Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone and Batman Returns. His most recent films include the critically acclaimed Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Oliver Stone’s Alexander Kilmer has said, "I'd be in a bad western on a good horse any day of the week. It's such a fantastic genre of film."
CREW
DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER
Piotr Uklanski, an accomplished visual artist, was born in 1968 in Warsaw, Poland. He has exhibited his work in numerous museums throughout the world; Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, La Biennale di Venezia and Sao Paolo Biennale among others. He lives and works in New York and in Warsaw. This is his first feature film.
PRODUCER
Staffan Ahrenberg is a Swedish born producer whose credits include the award winning film The Quiet American, Johnny Mnemonic, Love in Paris, Total Eclipse, Jersey Girl and Zandalee.
PRODUCER
Hamish Skeggs is a New Zealand born producer whose recent projects include The Last Drop, Spivs and Lighthouse Hill. He worked as a line producer on The Baby Juice Express and Aime Ton Père.
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Jacek Petrycki is an accomplished cinematographer who has collaborated with famed Polish auteur directors such as Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieslowski. His credits include Julie Walking Home, Shot in the Heart, Europa Europa, Bez Konca and Amator.
EDITOR
Mike Horton was awarded an Academy Award for Best Editor for his work on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers in 2002. His other Editor credits include Once Were Warriors, UTU and Zandalee among many features.
Summer Love is my debut film. It is the first Polish Western.
It was filmed on location in southern Poland with a Polish cast.
The film is neither a parody, nor homage; it does not attempt to resuscitate the supposedly dead genre of the Western.
Arguably, Summer Love is not a Western, but an allegorical film that uses the language of a Western. It exploits cinema’s most codified genre to address issues of ethnic identity and cultural authenticity.
Summer Love does not recall the European Westerns but it is nourished by their history. The cameo appearance of an American “star” (Val Kilmer as The Wanted Man) who plays a “valuable commodity” comments upon the cultural economy of such films and the realities of the film industry in general. Moreover, it ridicules the discourse of authenticity in continental, or any other non-American Western productions.
Summer Love is a film that attempts to produce a culturally specific product—a Western—in a foreign context—Poland.
If the film employs a “copying of a copy” process (remaking of the European Western) it does so to underscore the notions of aspiration, pretending, longing, desire—a yearning for the unattainable. The dream.
As the film unfolds the characters are introduced not by name, but by what they represent. THE WOMAN (Katarzyna Figura) is a fading beauty who can’t quite conceal the scars of her past. THE SHERIFF (Boguslaw Linda) is an alcoholic, lovelorn shell of a man who is literally mutilating himself over losing The Woman. THE BIG MAN (Krzytof Zaleski) is a fat, jealous cohort of The Sheriff who lusts after The Woman.
One day, The Stranger comes to town on horseback with THE WANTED MAN (Val Kilmer) who he retrieved at the site of a massacre in the film’s opening scenes. The Stranger has come to collect the bounty money. He winds up getting roped into playing The Sheriff’s sadistic gambling game and loses The Wanted Man to the gloating Sheriff. Fed up this self-destructive ploy, The Woman storms out of the saloon. Later that night, The Woman in a state of desperation seduces The Stranger. All hell breaks loose after their night of passion. A posse is formed under the Sheriff’s inept leadership and an epic manhunt ensues.
Told in a highly visual style, Summer Love recounts a tale of love, pain, redemption and death. On a surface the story is as old as time: Man looses Woman...Woman wants a new life…Stranger comes to town. Summer Love relies less on dialogue than upon on fast paced, meticulously composed images. They lead the audience into the hearts and minds of the characters creating the visual tableaux that tell their stories.
MAIN CAST
THE SHERIFF
Boguslaw Linda is regarded as one of the most popular and respected leading men in Polish cinema. He has collaborated with highly regarded directors such as Krzysztof Kieslowski, Andrzej Wajda and Andrzej Zulawski. Linda has starred in over seventy feature films, including most recently Quo Vadis? (2001). His many Polish, Hungarian and Swedish language film projects include Przypadek, Psy, Reich, Sezon na Leszcza, Pan Tadeusz, Operacja Samum, Je treba zabít Sekala, Demony wojny wedlug Goi and Zloto dezerterów.
THE STRANGER
Karel Roden, a Czech actor, is an art house star in his home country as well as a seasoned actor within the Hollywood film industry. His Hollywood films include The Bourne Supremacy, 15 Minutes with Robert DeNiro, Running Scared, Dead Fish, Bulletproof Monk among others. He has worked twice with cult action director Guillermo Del Toro on Blade II, and Hellboy. His most acclaimed Czech films credits include Bathory, Vaterland – Lovecky denik and Sklapni a zastrel me
THE WOMAN
Katarzyna Figura, an irrefutable star of stage and screen in Poland, was dubbed the Polish Marilyn Monroe following her breakthrough role in Pociag do Hollywood in 1987. She appeared in Roman Polanski’s Oscar winning World War II film, The Pianist, Robert Altman’s Pret-a-Porter as well as Ruggero Deodato’s Italian slasher, The Washing Machine. Her Polish filmography includes Zurek, Zemsta, Kariera Nikosia Dyzmy and Ga, Ga - Chwala bohaterom.
THE WANTED MAN
Val Kilmer is a Hollywood icon and box office draw whose filmography includes leading roles in Top Gun, The Doors, Tombstone and Batman Returns. His most recent films include the critically acclaimed Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Oliver Stone’s Alexander Kilmer has said, "I'd be in a bad western on a good horse any day of the week. It's such a fantastic genre of film."
CREW
DIRECTOR, WRITER, PRODUCER
Piotr Uklanski, an accomplished visual artist, was born in 1968 in Warsaw, Poland. He has exhibited his work in numerous museums throughout the world; Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Pompidou in Paris, La Biennale di Venezia and Sao Paolo Biennale among others. He lives and works in New York and in Warsaw. This is his first feature film.
PRODUCER
Staffan Ahrenberg is a Swedish born producer whose credits include the award winning film The Quiet American, Johnny Mnemonic, Love in Paris, Total Eclipse, Jersey Girl and Zandalee.
PRODUCER
Hamish Skeggs is a New Zealand born producer whose recent projects include The Last Drop, Spivs and Lighthouse Hill. He worked as a line producer on The Baby Juice Express and Aime Ton Père.
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Jacek Petrycki is an accomplished cinematographer who has collaborated with famed Polish auteur directors such as Agnieszka Holland and Krzysztof Kieslowski. His credits include Julie Walking Home, Shot in the Heart, Europa Europa, Bez Konca and Amator.
EDITOR
Mike Horton was awarded an Academy Award for Best Editor for his work on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers in 2002. His other Editor credits include Once Were Warriors, UTU and Zandalee among many features.
Summer Love is my debut film. It is the first Polish Western.
It was filmed on location in southern Poland with a Polish cast.
The film is neither a parody, nor homage; it does not attempt to resuscitate the supposedly dead genre of the Western.
Arguably, Summer Love is not a Western, but an allegorical film that uses the language of a Western. It exploits cinema’s most codified genre to address issues of ethnic identity and cultural authenticity.
Summer Love does not recall the European Westerns but it is nourished by their history. The cameo appearance of an American “star” (Val Kilmer as The Wanted Man) who plays a “valuable commodity” comments upon the cultural economy of such films and the realities of the film industry in general. Moreover, it ridicules the discourse of authenticity in continental, or any other non-American Western productions.
Summer Love is a film that attempts to produce a culturally specific product—a Western—in a foreign context—Poland.
If the film employs a “copying of a copy” process (remaking of the European Western) it does so to underscore the notions of aspiration, pretending, longing, desire—a yearning for the unattainable. The dream.
Web Site
Runtime
94
Language
English
Director
Piotr Uklanski
Cast
Karel Roden,
Katarzyna Figura,
Val Kilmer,
Krzysztof Zaleski
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