FIVE DAYS ONE SUMMER
US, 1982, 103 minutes, Colour.
Sean Connery, Betsy Brantley, Lambert Wilson, Anna Massey, Isabel Dean.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann.
Five Days One Summer is the last film by Austrian-born director Fred Zinnemann. He arrived in Hollywood in the 1930s and made a number of small-budget films for almost ten years. After making The Search, set in post-war Germany, in 1948, he began a series of films which made him one of the master directors of Hollywood. They include The Men, High Noon, The Member of the Wedding, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma, The Nun’s Story, The Sundowners, A Man For All Seasons. He won Oscars for High Noon and A Man For All Seasons. During the 70s he made only two films, The Day of the Jackal and Julia. This film was made in 1982 when he was seventy-five years old.
The film is set in the alps. It focuses on Sean Connery as an ageing physicist, who is idealised by his niece. She goes on a mountain holiday pretending to be his wife. However, with the discovery of a body in the snow, issues of relationships, love and betrayal emerge. Betsy Brantley is the young woman. Lambert Wilson is the guide with whom Connery climbs a mountain at the end of the film.
The film is set in 1932, a time when a lot of mountain films like this were made in Germany, including by Leni Riefenstahl.
The film was not well received – though, in retrospect, it shows Zinnemann going back to his European origins and making a European-style film based on character rather than dialogue and event.
1. An attractive romantic film? Period? Human interest? The work of Fred Zinnemann and his civilised craftsmanship?
2. The re-creation of the period: the '30s, Glasgow and industry, wealthy mansions? Switzerland, trains, mountain chalets? The European flavour? The musical score? Use of silences? (The supporting characters - with a touch of Agatha Christie. especially the sisters?)
3. The title? The original short story: Maiden, Maiden? The mountains and their beauty, ruggedness, challenge, exhilaration, danger, destruction? The film's close attention to the detail of climbing? The use of music - and the use of silences for the climbing?
4. The five-days structure with the flashbacks? Points of insertion -for Douglas, for Kate? The elaboration of the plot: Kate and her infatuation with Douglas - as a small girl, on his return from India, the beginning of the affair and the deception of Sara? The tension for the holiday?
5. The variation on the basic triangle plot? The relationship between Douglas and Kate? The echo with the old Maria and the rediscovery of her dead fiance? Her smile to Kate at the funeral?
6. The introduction to Kate and Douglas: the train, age difference, Kate's tension and smoking? The waiting at the station? The ride to the chalet? The exhilaration of the mountain walk, the immediate dancing, their room? The curiosity of the two sisters and the room's reaction to Kate? Their compatibility as a couple? The audience accepting this - then changing as it got to know Kate and Douglas?
7. The portrait of Kate? As a young girl, her refusal to say goodbye to Douglas, his return and rushing to kiss him? Her work, wealth? Relationship with her mother? Suspicions of an antagonism with Sara? Her waiting for Douglas to come upstairs, the sexual encounter, her lie to Sara? Her experience, moods, love? The attraction towards Johann? His challenging her? Her telling him the truth? The mountain~ climbing? The fall on the easy face, the jumping the crevasse, the discovery of the dead fiance? Her not going on the difficult climb? Scenes of her waiting, at the window, writing the letter, leaving? Her telling Douglas she was breaking the liaison? The final encounter? Her grief? Character. credible?
8. Sean Connery and his style as Douglas? Amiable, tender? Relationship with Kate? The trip. the dancing? The discussions with Johann about the climbing? His skill in climbing and experience? The background of his marriage. work in India. return. the business? The difficulties with Sara? His advances to Kate? His love for her? The age difference? The deception? The climbing, his encouraging Kate, the slip into the ravine. the discovery of the body? The tensions of the night before the long climb with Kate's absence from the hut? The exhilaration of climbing. the reaching of the peak with Johann? Johann's challenge about Kate? The climb down. Johann's death? His return?
9. Johann as the ordinary young guide, teacher, living in the mountain world? Alertness? The face climb and his help for Kate? Jumping of the ravine? The story of the dead fiance? The funeral? His being shocked at the truth about Kate? The mountain hut and his restlessness? His skill with the climb, the confrontation of Douglas? His death?
10. The background of Glasgow and its detail of work, wealth? Women -Kate's mother, Sara? A wealthy world?
11. The contrast with life in Switzerland: the mountains. the changes of weather. thunder and lightning?
12. The supporting characters: the staff at the hotel. the host. the guides. the cook. the visitors - especially the two sisters and their very English style?
13. The sequence of the rescue of the dead man? The youthfulness of his face - dead for 40 years? The aged Maria coming to identify him? The funeral? The parallel of Johann dying and Kate becoming like Maria? Maria's smile to her at the funeral?
14. The film's attention to detail of mountain-climbing? In itself? The effect on the climbers? A symbol for human experience?
15. A study of relationships, observation of human behaviour? The audience sharing the experiences of the characters? insight?
