Summer Movies--#1

As I mentioned last week, If you want to write a summer movie, it’s a good idea to know the genre that is summer movies. So over the next few weeks, let’s look at a few and see what we find. I thought a good place to start would be with a classic that you may not have seen: 1955’s Summertime by Arthur Laurents, H.E. Bates and David Lean.

The film famously starred Katharine Hepburn in this story of a single middle-aged woman [starved for love, of course, as all women who weren’t married in the ‘50s were supposed to be, right?] as she visits Venice.

So first thing—yes, it’s from another era. But in that respect, it’s also interesting, because it’s about a typical woman at that time who was NOT married but yet chose to bravely travel on her own to Venice - and it would have been an act of bravery in 1955 .

Here’s a clip to whet your appetite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXMQjF9KKuI

Notice how much tension there is in this scene—and yet, other than her calling out for the waiter, no words are spoken. This is a great scene to remember whenever you’re writing narrative—how can you communicate all that’s happening in a scene without dialogue and make it jump off the page? How can you make characters come alive simply by describing their facial expressions and body positions? Even though the protagonists exchange no words in this scene, it can take a great deal of time for you to write the scene, because you need to get every nuance of feeling down—from each glance to each movement. And you do that by being able to reach inside these two people and imagine what they’re feeling, and then show those feelings through the actions they make. This is not easy.

One of the great things about summer films is that they’re often mini-vacations for the viewer, and Summertime doesn’t disappoint from that perspective as it’s almost like a trip to Venice… in the summer… when anything is possible.

And that’s another key to summer films—most of the audience will never be able to take that summer trip to Venice that the main character does in this film, but by watching the film they’ll almost feel as if they had. So that’s your job as a writer, too—to make the audience wish they’d been on the trip you’ve taken the main character on. In that respect, in this kind of summer film, the setting is very much a character.

So if you’re planning a summer film set in a certain place, make sure you try and convey everything about that place that will make it come alive for an audience and truly make the place another character in your film.

Next week, let’s do a kid’s movie from the 60s. See you then!

Copyright © Diane Lake

28Jun20

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com