An Unforgettable Summer

An Unforgettable Summer French Un t inoubliable Romanian O var de neuitat is a 1994 drama film directed and produced by Lucian Pintilie. A RomanianFrench coproduction based on a chapter from a novel by Petru Dumitriu, it stars British actress Kristin Scott Thomas as the Hungarianborn aristocrat MarieThrse Von Debretsy. Her marriage with Romanian Land Forces captain Petre Dumitriu brings her to Southern Dobruja presentday northeastern Bulgaria, where they settle in 1925. There, she witnesses firsthand the violent clashes between, on one hand, the Greater Romanian administration, and, on the other, komitadji brigands of Macedonian origin and ethnic Bulgarian locals. The film shows her failed attempt to rescue Bulgarians held hostage by the Romanian soldiers, and who are destined for execution. An Unforgettable Summer also stars Claudiu Bleon as Captain Dumitriu and Marcel Iure as Ipsilanti, a general whose unsuccessful attempt to seduce Von Debretsy and the resulting grudge he holds against the couple account for Dumitrius reassignment.

The films plot, which develops as a flashback narrated by Dumitrius young son, opens with what American film magazine Variety called a mad gallop, with the camera in the saddle, giving viewers a crash course in regional rivalries circa 1925. In the opening scenes, Romanian authorities are shown to be frantically engaged in shutting down a brothel, whose presence they believe would embarrass local high society at a time when a grand ball is set to take place. This scandalized prostitutes include the Hungarian Erzsi, who is also a communist sympathizer, and who irritates the officials by shouting out insults and mooning them through a window. During the latter scene, John Simon notes, Land Forces officers are shown staring up in mixed horror and admiration at the familiar globe whose owner they promptly identify. As she is beaten up by the soldiers, Erzsi continues to defy her aggressors by shouting up revolutionary slogans coined under the Hungarian Soviet Republic.The film then centers on the gala, which is attended by the Dumitrius and offers the setting for Von Debretsys rejection of General Ipsilantis advances. The characters backgrounds are explained through the gossip of Madame Vorvoreanu, a distant relative of Von Debretsy, who is attending the event. The spectators are thus told that Von Debretsy is the daughter of a Romanian boyaress and a member of the Hungarian aristocracy, and that she is held in contempt by the local notabilities. In parallel, Ipsilanti himself is shown to be not just a military commander, but also as a prince. ........

Source: Wikipedia