Newcomer to the village, Eilane, (Isabelle Adjani), is certainly a stunner and soon she's driving all the boys wild but it's mechanic and fireman 'Pin-Pon', (Alain Souchon), who woos her and wins her even though on their first date he sees a side to her that would have most men fleeing to the hills. Eilane may indeed be gorgeous but she's also clearly psychotic or worse. Jean Becker's "One Deadly Summer" is just yet another in a long line of superb French thrillers in which bad things take place in bright sunlight and people seem to have an ulterior motive for everything while Adjani joins a long list of very fatal femmes. She's terrific as usual but then so is everyone else in a movie that sets out its stall early on and then proceeds to give to the cold creeps for the next two hours. If you wished you could call it Chabrolian but I think this is a darker film than even Chabrol might have given us. Well worth seeking out.
Review of One Deadly Summer
