Essentially, I see this as a film that explores the failure of patriarchy,in particular, its subsequent affect on the institution of family. In addition, it intelligently demonstrates an understanding of Christianity's contradictions and in doing so provides some evidence of its instability. In addition, the film is fairly successful in providing a brief insight into the classically misinterpreted philosophical ideas of Frederich Nietzsche. There are several holes in the plot that I will not go into, however, I did see parallels between 'My Summer of Love' and 'Dead Mans Shoes'. For instance, the mise-en-scene, particularly the location are quite similar and is the general mood. The 'peeping Tom' style employed by Pavlikovsky is comparable to the way Meadows shot 'Dead Mans Shoes', even the 'twist' at the end of both films could be argued to be similar. But it works. You certainly feel 'uneasy' during the film. Paddy Considine, who stars in this film and co-wrote the script for 'Dead Mans Shoes', has clearly been influenced by Pavlikovsky's style, but I'm not complaining. Nonetheless, why they decided on the title 'My Summer of Love' I will never know.
Review of My Summer of Love
