Summer House, The

Released by: Artsploitation Films
Released on: August 25th, 2015.
Director: Curtis Burz
Cast: Sten Jacobs, Anna Altmann, Jaspar Fuld, Nina Splettstí¶sser
Year: 2014
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The Movie:

Curtis Burz's film The Summer House revolves around the family dynamic of The Larsens. Led by father Markus (Sten Jacobs), who makes a very good living as an architect, on the outside they would seem to have it all, but Markus' wife Christine (Anna Altmann) and their eleven year old daughter Elisabeth (Nina Splettstí¶sser) would tell you otherwise.

Underneath this posh exterior, however, there are issues. Markus, unbeknownst to the rest of the family, leads a secret life where he meets up with strange men for clandestine sex. He's also having trouble hiding his feelings for Johannes (Jaspar Fuld), the twelve year old son of his partner at the architectural firm. Christine would love nothing more than for her husband to spend time with her and show her the affection she craves, but she knows something is up, the distance between them is impossible to ignore even if she isn't entirely sure what the problem is. Elisabeth, now at the age where she's starting to develop urges of her own, has a better idea of what's happening than her mother does, but as Markus' obsession with Jacob becomes harder and harder for him to control, things very quickly begin to spiral out of control.

This is an interesting take on the importance in certain aspects of society of keeping up appearances. Markus could never go public with his feelings for Johannes, and he obviously wrestles with the very fact that he feels the way that he does about the clearly underage boy. Christine doesn't seem to see any of this coming and is instead portrayed as little more than simply lonely. She cares for her husband and is unaware of what he does at the family summer home when nobody is watching. At the same time, you get the impression that if she did know about this, she may want to keep it quiet as well. Elisabeth, on the other hand, new to her own still developing feelings of a sexual nature, is where the twist comes in and where The Summer House evolves from a simple critique of the upper class into something a little more subversive and a little more cerebral. Burz does a very good job of tying everything up for the finish, and while the movie is almost wholly dialogue based, he paces it well and keeps it twisted enough that you can't really look away.

The performances in the movie are uniformly strong. Sten Jacobs has this perfect air of arrogance about him that makes his character fairly despicable. Of course, his actions damn him from the start and while the movie is careful to ensure that we see his humanity as well as his flaws, it's tough to sympathize with the guy. Jacobs plays this challenging part very well. Anna Altmann replaces Jacob's arrogance with loneliness and does just as well. You really do feel bad for this woman as the story plays out. But it's the younger actors who really impress here. Nina Splettstí¶sser's Elisabeth is central to the plot in ways that most children are not in situations like this and she handles the material well. Likewise, Jaspar Fuld as Johannes does really strong work here as well, particularly in the last third of the film.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The Summer House looks great on DVD presented by Artsploitaiton Films in 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors well defined throughout the movie and are reproduced quite nicely. Detail is generally strong and black levels are good. There are no issues with compression artifacts and the image is clean and crisp throughout the duration of the movie. Skin tones look lifelike and accurate and the well authored disc shows no problems with compression artifacts or edge enhancement. As the movie was shot on HD video, there are obviously no issues with print damage.

The only audio option on the disc is a German language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track with optional subtitles provided in English only. Audio quality is quite good. The score sounds really nice, the dialogue seems to be mixed properly and the levels properly balanced. There are no issues with hiss or distortion to report and clarity is strong and there's good depth present throughout the majority of the movie.

Extras are surprisingly plentiful here, starting off with roughly seven minutes of rehearsal footage all of which was shot around a pre-production read through of the dinner scene. It's interesting to see the cast here getting into character and to compare this footage to how this scene plays out in the finished version of the movie. We also get an interesting and length alternate ending and an additional seven minutes of deleted and extended scenes. Nothing here, ending aside, changes the film all that much and most of what was excised was marginally interesting but ultimately unnecessary character development bits.

Director Curtis Burz gets in front of the camera for a twenty-minute long interview in which he talks about putting this project together, what his vision was for the film and the contributions of his cast and crew while cinematographers Peter Serbera and Andreas Gockel talk on camera for seven minutes about shooting the picture, the lighting, the locations and some specific compositional ideas they employed here. Composer Bastian Schick talks for eight minutes about scoring the film and then we wind up with cast members Sten Jacobs and Anna Altman talking for fourteen and seven minutes respectively about the pace of the film, what it was like working on set with Burz, their characters and quite a bit more.

Rounding out the extras are a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other recent Artsploitation Films DVD and Blu-ray releases, menus and chapter selection.

The Final Word:

The Summer House is a fascinating exercise in restraint as it manages to make you noticeably uncomfortable without ever having to go into particularly graphic territory to do so. There's a great story here, as twisted as it is, and some really fine acting to compliment the solid cinematography. This one stands out a bit from Artsploitation Films' more lurid offerings, but don't let that dissuade you. This is a very good movie and the disc presents it very, very nicely.