Robert Pattinson Australia » The Summer House (2009)

The Summer House (2009) | Daisy Gili

The Summer House is about a moment in a young girl’s life. A turning point, a time for decision: to go back or to go forward

Director: Daisy Gili

Writer: Ian Beck

Role: Richard

Costars: Talulah Riley (Jane), Anna Calder-Marshall (Priscilla), David Burke (Freddie), Marianne Borgo (Marie Pierre) and Laurence Beck (Nico)

DVD release date: 16 August 2010 (UK), 2 November 2010 (US)

(Note: The Summer House is also included as part of ‘Love And Distrust’ DVD which is a compilation of short films).

TRAILER:

SYNOPSIS:

From Official Site: Â The Summer House is about a moment in a young girl’s life.Â A turning point, a time for decision: to go back, or go forward?

Jane (17) is in rural France visiting her aunt Priscilla during the hot summer of 1969, the year of the Moon landings. Also staying at this beautiful 19th century chateau, a sleeping beauty of a house, are her auntâ€™s old flame Freddie Porteous, a charming Englishman, and his wife Marie Pierre, a French woman of great sophistication and beauty.

Jane has left behind an unfaithful first love. Several letters have pursued her, letters decorated with hearts to tempt her. The author of these letters, Richard (18), turns up uninvited. Jane is unaware that her situation is provoking tensions among the older generation, she catches whispers of unspoken somethings at the heart of Freddie and Priscilla’s relationship and she finds Marie Pierreâ€™s allure and passion unsettling.

Jane looks to her role models for advice but Priscilla, Freddie and Marie Pierre have become wrapped up in their own giddy feelings about what it was like to be 17 and in love. At a party to celebrate the moon landings Jane is transformed by Marie Pierre from English mouse to sophisticated woman. Wanting to impress and suspecting Richard might be at the party she holds her head high.

Dizzy from dancing and emboldened by champagne Jane ventures out to the Summer House. Curiosity has got the better of her. Is there a dalliance between her sensible aunt and charismatic Freddie? Instead she is confronted by a repentant Richard. He wants her back. She is impossibly tempted, but repelled by his crude attempt to force her.

The romantic ideal of young love becomes crushed by his rough desire and by the giggling arrival of Priscilla and Freddie. Jane is forced to face the disappointment of reality. Troubled by Richardâ€™s motivation and by the apparent immaturity of Priscilla & Freddie, she burns the unopened letters and drops them into a deep well. Her world has changed, expanded; a more complex fairy tale is emergingâ€¦

Background to Richard (Rob’s character):

Richard is just eighteen. He is a good looking boy, with an ambivalent feminine side, skinny and androgynous in the fashion of that time. He is narcissistic and entirely self regarding, his is a solipsistic universe with only one golden person inhabiting it; himself. Jane was the trophy girlfriend until he found better, then he was in turn dumped and now is back trying to ingratiate himself with Jane. He has written letters to the chateau, decorated the envelopes with psychedelic love hearts.

He sees himself as a lover, as a pop figure, something of a curious cross between Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger. He is the kind of boy who will hang around looking pitiful and hoping his moodiness will attract girls, which it does. If thwarted he will turn nasty in an instant, and does. He wants Jane to feel sorry for him for making the mistake of giving her up. He is desperate for her, but he is the wrong boy, he is an ‘unsuitable boy’.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Official Website The Summer House Film (no longer active)
iTunes US | UK | Australia – check iTunes for other regions
YouTube

REVIEWS MOVIE & DVD

Indiewire: “Pattinson spends much of then film standing just off screen, hinted at but not introduced directly until the last few minutes (which probably helps his performance). He turns out to be quite the opposite of a gentle romantic paramour, perhaps an attempt to fight type-casting, though Iâ€™m not sure how effective that is. “