A Summer Story

source: A Summer Story

In 1922, a man returns to the rural countryside with his wife remember a pre-war love affair. In 1904, lawyer Mr. Ashton (James Wilby) and his friend Dr. Garton from London are walking. Ashton twists his ankle and encounters country girl Megan David (Imogen Stubbs). She brings them to her auntie Mrs. Narracombe (Susannah York) and her possessive son Joe (Jerome Flynn). They aren't really related. Narracombe took her in after her mother's death. Garton takes off the next morning. Ashton is intrigued and he starts an affair with Megan. It drives Joe jealous who expected to marry her. It's a heart breaking romance. It's kind of a reverse romance. Ashton's weakness is the bane of this movie. I never really liked the chemistry of the couple because of his character. I would like to follow her story more than his story. The ending is harsh but that's what so good about this movie.

The basic plot, on the surface, tells a simple tale of a very common happening through the centuries, in England, as well as the rest of Europe. A young unmarried gentleman 'sows his oats' with a poor trusting peasant girl, then abandons her to marry an often spoiled girl of his own class. However, this case is a bit out of the ordinary in that the gentleman felt a real love for this girl and didn't intend to abandon his promise to marry her, until a series of unexpected events compressed into a couple of days caused him to get cold feet and make a fateful decision. He was swayed by the common advice to young upper class gentleman to 'never make the mistake of marrying your mistress', and let his head overrule his heart at the last minute. Unfortunately for Megan: the girl involved, Frank Ashton, the gentleman involved, was not the sort to keep a mistress on the side. Thus, he never sought her out again until it was far too late. Thus,she was left to care for their infant son he didn't know existed, and soon thereafter died of a combination of depression and a winter illness. This, Ashton didn't learn until many years later. The screenplay contrasts the earthy communal feel of rural English peasantry with the city world of uncaring bureaucracy-obsessed arrogant bankers and out-of-touch leisured upper class families. Of course, this is a caricature that doesn't always ring true. Nonetheless, we are treated to the perception of Megan as a carefree young woman, full of fun, yet skilled in the tasks of a farm girl: a girl with self confidence in caring for children in a fun way and doing the common chores of a housewife, capable of real passion in a romantic relationship with the right man, despite disapproval by her family. The background music for the film was quite appropriate in helping to accentuate it's various moods. This story has personal relevance to me, as I didn't make Ashton's mistake. Against all advice, I decided to marry a girl rather like Megan, from a poor family on the other side of the world, of quite a different race and non-western culture, and whom I had known only a short while. Despite many challenges, it has generally worked out well for 20+ years, thus far. With my considerable financial and knowledge help, she became a medical professional and has adapted well to US culture, while retaining a keen interest in her native family and culture. However, you must begin with the right two people for this to work out well over the long run.

This is another excellent love movie that most people miss out on. I remember watching this way back when it was shown on the local public television channel and was so mesmerized by the whole movie. When I first saw it, I was much younger. I enjoyed it so much I wanted to watch it again however it was hard to find a copy and it wasn't played anymore on TV. Many years later I was able to find it at a local movie rental store. Thinking that it probably won't hit the spot like it did the first time, I was wrong. I enjoyed it just as much like the first time. It's hard to find a good love movie involving a romance so full of many emotions. I go back and rent this video every now and then to watch. This movie and "The Notebook" touched my heart in almost the same way. If you enjoyed watching "The Notebook" or haven't seen both and simply enjoy watching heart touching romantic movies then you must watch both! Innocent love lost and betrayed, it's so sad.

I thought I was the only one who remembers A Summer Story. I cannot believe this movie is not more widely known. This should be regarded as a classic. I watched A Summer Story nearly a decade ago. I was barely in my teens then, just beginning to understand the mysteries of this world. This is one of the first movies that truly touched me. I didn't understand all of it but understood enough to lie awake the whole night crying into my pillow. The next morning my mom asked me if there was anything the matter with me because my eyes were all red and puffy from crying. I am glad to know that I am not the only one who cried after watching it. And the final scene! My heart aches even now when I think of it. If anyone doesn't cry after that final moment they must be made out of stone! True, my memory of A Summer Story maybe tinted with the rosy glow of yesterday but from what I remember every tear I shed for this movie was worth it.

I am happy to know that I am not the only person this movie had a profound effect on. How can it be so good and yet so many people have no clue about it. I saw it around the year it came out. I was living in Toronto and I can't remember whether or not it came to the theatres but late one night I looked at it on the movie Channel. I was bored and had nothing else to do. Fantastic movie, the ending was so sad. For years I would recommend this film to friends and nobody would really know what I was talking about. For months after I had seen the film I would think about it and the way it ended. I have never forgotten the name Imogen Stubbs. I looked out for her for years. I saw her in one film with Robert Duvall but nothing after that. I was always on the look out for her in the nineties. A few years ago I looked her up on the net and found out she had more or less married and settled down. This movie and Imogen Stubbs had a profound effect on me. A great romantic tragedy that far too few people know about. Veersen

I first saw this great little movie a few years ago while overseas in the Middle East on a late night movie channel that carried older "B" movies. I was so mesmerized with this tale, when it was over I spent 30 minutes long distance on the phone with my wife explaining the plot. When I got back to the States I some how found an old DVD of the movie on the internet and bought it immediately. My wife and I watched this wonderful movie again recently (Jan 2017) and ended up crying together all over again! A Summer Story is so well cast (Imogen Stubbs in the lead female role and James Wilby as the lead male) and with a story that is so beautifully written. The production values are extremely well done that you feel transported to the 1904 Dartmoor countryside and the lovely coastal town of Torquay. Beware to be supplied with a box of tissues for the plot climax at the end! Technical Note: The DVD this viewer watched had high contrast, with narrow dynamic range, resulting in poor image detail in the shadows and highlights, and loss of screen resolution. Film chain transfer is of low quality and accomplished on a non-CCD device, with no digital post-transfer correction, and displayed reverse screen vignetting.

If you are thinking of watching this movie, make sure you have a box of tissues ready - because unless you are emotionally constipated this film will make you cry. I watched it on my return from the hospital after giving birth to my daughter and I wept buckets. It is beautifully acted, particularly by Imogen Stubbs. I can't understand why we do not see more of this talented actress. The music by George Delerue matches and enhances the heart rending story, and sounds pretty darn good without the film, too. The story is about an upper class young man(James Wilby) who, whilst on a walking holiday, falls in love with a beautiful young farm girl. I really don't want to give any more of the plot away. I loved it. If you never enjoy romance, or poignant tales of lost chances and heartbreak, then you probably won't love it!

What a great story. Excellent acting. I watch my old VHS copy about once a year. So very sad, so realistic, so human. I stumbled on this one day while watching a partially recorded copy of the movie. The tape ended about 20 minutes before the end of the movie. I could not believe it. I closed my shop and immediately went to the video store and rented it to see how it ended. Probably not to extreme except for the fact that I'm an "action","sci-fi", "fantasy" kind of movie lover.............I can't recommend it highly enough, and easy 10+. I don't think you will be disappointed.

The eighties and nineties were perhaps the Golden Age of the British "heritage cinema" movement, and "A Summer Story" from 1988 is a good example. Although the film is based on a story by John Galsworthy, it is reminiscent of the work of Thomas Hardy, both in its West Country setting and in its use of themes and devices which are typical of Hardy, such as love between people of different social standing and a chance mishap or misunderstanding which prevents a crucial meeting between the lovers. In the summer of 1904 Frank Ashton, a young London barrister, on a walking holiday on Dartmoor with a friend, falls and twists his ankle. While staying at a nearby farmhouse to recover, he meets the owner's attractive young niece, Megan David. (Galsworthy may have been influenced by Hardy's "On the Western Circuit", which also deals with a young barrister who falls for a village girl). The two fall in love and Ashton promises to take Megan back to London with him and marry her. Lacking money for the journey, however, he travels to the nearby seaside town of Torquay to cash a cheque at a bank. While in Torquay, however, a chance meeting with an old friend and his sister Stella, who are staying in the town, changes matters dramatically. Ashton finds himself attracted to Stella and realises that he has the chance of marriage to someone from his own social class. There is a particularly fine performance from the lovely Imogen Stubbs as Megan. (This is one of Imogen's rare film appearances; she has generally concentrated more on stage and television work). In financial terms, marriage to Ashton would probably be advantageous to Megan, at least in the long term. At the start of his career, he is not particularly wealthy, but as a qualified lawyer he has much greater earning potential than any of the men in Megan's small Devon village, including her other suitor, her loutish cousin Joe Narracombe. Yet in order to achieve financial stability Megan would be required to make a great sacrifice in psychological terms, giving up the security of her family and native village to move to London where she would be a fish out of water, her rustic accent and lack of education setting her apart from the wives of her husband's friends and colleagues. Yet, knowing all this, she still loves Ashton unconditionally. If Helena Bonham Carter was Britain's reigning queen of costume drama during this period, the James Wilby was probably the king. (He also appeared in the likes of "Maurice", "A Handful of Dust", "Howard's End", "Regeneration" and "Gosford Park"). He is not convincing as the older Ashton- that grizzled beard, more appropriate to a man in his sixties or seventies, stuck to his boyish face, does nothing to persuade us that his character is now middle-aged. As the younger man, however, he is very good. Ashton may be Frank by name but he is not frank by nature. Megan is the heroine of the film, albeit a tragic one, but Ashton is not its hero, as he is not the stuff of which heroes are made. Put to the test he proves a broken reed. Apart from the scenes in fashionable Torquay, the film lacks the visual beauty and elaborate costumes often associated with heritage cinema, especially the work of the Merchant-Ivory team. Its visual look is more sombre, appropriate both to the humble social status of its heroine and to its tragic theme. In this respect it reminded me of another tragic period drama from a few years later, Michael Winterbottom's "Jude", based upon Hardy's "Jude the Obscure". "A Summer Story" is today probably less well-known than most of Merchant-Ivory's output, or even "Jude", and it only occasionally turns up on television. Yet with its own beauty and a moving storyline it is one of those excellent British movies from the eighties ("Absolute Beginners" and "The Chain" are others) that is overdue for a revival. 8/10