Rent Summertime (1955)

Enchanting view of a sublime Venice. - Summertime review by CB

Beautifully filmed in Venice, a treat of its own. The storyline is predictable, so what, The star is as magnetic as ever. Just the ending though....did they run out of ideas or money? Seemed rushed and deflationary.

Holiday Fling, Heart on Hold - Summertime review by griggs

Summertime finds its rhythm in arrivals and departures—steam, whistles, and the brief courage of holidays. Lean shoots the city without irony: Piazza San Marco, narrow canals, light that forgives and reveals. Katharine Hepburn’s Jane is the film’s quiet centre—self-possessed, yes, but watch the edges: the guidebook fussing, the self-timer photograph, the way she hovers at a café table as if permission might arrive with the bill.

The romance with Rossano Brazzi’s Renato warms rather than overwhelms; Lean lets flirtation sit alongside self-reckoning. What looks like a postcard turns out to be a mirror. Not much “happens,” unless you count the small shift from wanting a story to accepting a life.

She arrives alone, leaves alone, and somehow that feels like progress. A brief encounter by other means—and a city that makes solitude look like choice.

Venice Travelogue - Summertime review by NO

Delightful Film-no surprises but Venice is beautifully filmed .Simple story for swooning teenagers.Hepburn is excellent & Rossano charming.

I am not surprised that David Lean made Venice his second home after this.