The A posteriori le cinema series is an opportunity to celebrate the 7e art by revisiting key titles that celebrate important anniversaries.
Her name is Éliane, but everyone calls her “Elle”. Behind her village starlet looks and her ostentatious bursts of laughter, Elle hides a wound; a secret that gnaws and enrages her. Recently arrived in the area with her parents, she soon marries Florimond, who has no idea what awaits her. Beautiful but stormy young woman, the vengeful protagonist of The killer summer, unveiled at Cannes 40 years ago, in May 1983, is one of the most memorable heroines of French cinema. This, thanks to his interpreter, Isabelle Adjani.
As summarized by Hélène Delye in The world to mark 30 years of murderous summer, in 2013: “It is one of those films that a single line is enough, even today, to make it reappear in its entirety. When we hear the voice of the great actress Suzanne Flon say about Éliane, the burning character played by Isabelle Adjani in The killer summer : “The truth is that she is unhappy. His life must not have been funny all the time. But that, of course, she shows it less easily than her behind”, it is the whole plot, the drama of this rural and scorching thriller that resonates. »
And to continue that the film bears witness to “an era, a climate, the youth of an actress who became an icon”.
The genesis of the project dates back to 1977, when a mutual friend introduced writer and screenwriter Sébastien Japrisot to director Jean Becker. Japrisot quickly had the idea of The killer summer, but the scenario as such did not come to him. Becker suggested that they make a novel out of it that they could then adapt. After eight months, it was done.
Adjani says yes
In the mind of the filmmaker, Isabelle Adjani was the only one who could play Eliane. Alas, she flatly refused. Psychological abysses into which he would have to plunge again so soon after the brilliant but trying Possessionby Andrei Zulawski, to nudity, a reason that led her to decline Luis Buñuel’s offer to play in That Obscure Object of Desirethe star felt neither the strength nor the desire.
However, the production did not immediately fall back on a newcomer by the name of Valérie Kaprisky (The public woman) that Adjani changed his mind.
She is a character who plays a double role, since she is a girl who constantly hides her feelings, which are those of a broken heart, and who, to make people believe that she feels good about herself, takes on of vamp and tease in this village
To interpret Florimond, alias “Pin Pon”, because he is a volunteer firefighter, Becker approached the singer Alain Souchon. To the cast were added, apart from the veteran Suzanne Flon, Jenny Clève, in the role of the suspicious mother of Pin Pon, Michel Galabru, in that of the invalid father of Éliane, and Maria Machado, in that of the mother of the young woman (whom the villagers meanly call “Eva Braun”, because of her German origins). A young François Cluzet plays Pin Pon’s brother, while an even younger Maïwenn portrays the child version of Éliane.
Filming took place in the mountainous department of Vaucluse. For the music, Georges Delerue (Jules and Jim) was inspired by the old player piano which plays a key – and sinister – role in the story: the result was a theme as haunting as it was disturbing.
The film was selected in official competition at Cannes. We then discovered, behind the sunny facade, a dark and tortuous story. The critical reception was quite enthusiastic, but the word “commercial” came up often: a capital sin in competition. On the other hand, almost everyone agreed on Isabelle Adjani’s striking composition.
In the wake of the Cannes premiere, Claire Devarrieux writes in The world : “Isabelle Adjani has arrived and the Festival endorses her legend. Nose glued to the windows, we look for the table where “she” has lunch. A swarm of cannibal photographers, it’s her again, and, from the port to the Carlton, her name runs on the Croisette […] This is not vulgar film tourism. The public joins the professionals to assess the star’s new performance, and they are happy, because she surprises them without shocking them, because she gives herself and comes down from her pedestal to play provincial vamps without complex. . »
Cannes scandal
Except that this “swarm of cannibal photographers” pushed Adjani not to take part in one of the traditional public photo sessions of the august event. Also, when she reappeared on the red carpet, the photographers protested by putting down their cameras and turning their backs on the actress: the episode entered the annals of Cannes.
However, it would be wrong to associate Adjani’s decision with a mood swing. Because suddenly, its whole image changed in the popular imagination. In Les InrockuptiblesMarilou Duponchel returns to the subject in 2018, comparing the case of Isabelle Adjani after The killer summer to that of Brigitte Bardot after And God created the woman.
“Nearly ten years after being the young student and daddy’s girl of a generation in The slap by Claude Pinoteau, Isabelle Adjani becomes the new French sex symbol […] A role of which Adjani will say that she did not suspect for a moment the wave of erotic shock that it was going to trigger… ”
always in The Inrocksbut this time in an interview from 2022, the main interested party confides: “I remember The killer summer, I was embarrassed when I felt in the eyes of some people that they confused me with the character, a bit like those who confused women’s liberation with taking liberties with women. »
Indeed, the nudity that the star feared so much became, in 1983, one of the interviewers’ favorite subjects of conversation, as evidenced by the equivocal “questions” of Patrick Poivre d’Arvor at the 8 p.m. newspaper : “It’s you all raw from the beginning to the end”, or “You hide your feelings well, but you don’t hide everything! “.
During this live interview from Cannes, a visibly uncomfortable Isabelle Adjani ignores the innuendo and responds with the intelligence that characterizes her: “He is a character who plays a double role, since it is a girl who constantly hides her feelings, which are those of a broken heart, and who to pretend that she feels good about herself takes on the appearance of a vamp and a tease in this village. »
A strong and beautiful role
With a double role, a double game: thus the plot multiplies the revelations until this outcome which leaves you speechless. In fact, Eliane got what she wanted, but in vain, and at the cost of her reason. In her last appearance in the film, Adjani, whose character has regressed to the stage of childhood, is overwhelming.
Crowned five times best actress at the Césars (Possession, Camille Claudel, Queen Margot, skirt day), an unequaled record, Isabelle Adjani declares, moved, when receiving the one for The killer summer (from the hands of Jack Nicholson): “I am very happy that the profession has not been afraid to achieve popular success; that is very important. I would also like to say that it is quite great to have such a role. I don’t know if I will have the opportunity in the years to come to interpret a role as strong and as beautiful as this one. And it is also to the role that I put this César. »