Summertime

David Lean basks in the splendor of Venice’s tourist hotspots in a manner that, as evinced by Summertime’s rapturous visual splendor, anticipates his subsequent string of massively scaled productions.

It offers a rich, sometimes dazzling surface, with its fine Venice locations, but its conception seems tentative.

The dialogue can be stagey and Venice is evoked at a tourist level, but it's beautifully photographed and Hepburn's loneliness and sadness look disquietingly real.

The film stacks up as promising entertainment -- with some reservations.

[Features] lovely performance from Hepburn at its centre.

Being Lean's favourite of his films this is undoubtedly worthy of attention.

It’s not the traditional formula for a romance film, but Lean does not desire to make it traditional.

An intelligent and well-acted romantic drama.

The tawdry subject became the province of only the classiest actors.

Summertime is a game-changing end-of-an-era film for David Lean and also features a superb performance from Katharine Hepburn.