Estate Violenta (aka Violent Summer) (1959)

In 1943 Italy, the young son (Jean Louis Trintignant) of a prominent Fascist (Enrico Maria Salerno), who has intentionally managed to avoid the draft, falls in love with an older woman (Eleonora Rossi Drago). The second feature of director Valerio Zurlini (DESERT OF THE TARTARS) is a May/December romance set against the backdrop of the collapse of the Fascist government. The young Trintignant brings an interesting ambivalence to his character. We're never quite sure if he's a simple draft dodger out of cowardice or because of political beliefs. The lovely Rossi Drago (she was Lot's wife in John Huston's THE BIBLE) brings both an attractive mature sexuality and a poignancy to her love starved matron tired of playing the respectable widow. There's a marvelous lengthy sequence played to the pop song Temptation as the sexual attraction between Trintignant and Rossi Drago builds until it becomes too much to be contained in the confines of the small informal party they are a part of. But the film's kinetic highlight is the bombing of a passenger train which captures all the hysteria and panic of such an event with expertise. The first rate score is by Mario Nascimbene (THE VIKINGS). With Jacqueline Sassard (Losey's ACCIDENT) and Lilla Brignone.