My Summer of Love 2004

Heady with the joys and dangers of mutual infatuation, My Summer of Love sweeps us up in the passionate holiday friendship of Mona, a poor girl from a country pub, and Tamsin, a glamorously bored and arty rich girl from a nearby estate. The summery glades never looked more conducive to romantic adventure. But in a small Yorkshire village their often hilarious flouting of convention is bound to raise more than eyebrows. And Mona’s ex-con, born-again big brother is not amused. Inevitable comparisons with Heavenly Creatures will harm neither film, though you can rest assured no mothers (or brothers) are murdered in this one.

“It has taken a Polish-born director to respond to the exoticism of the English countryside and English mannerisms of region and class. Within the Yorkshire Dales' sunlit expanses, he has created a swooning love story with wit, flair, eroticism and some New Wave attitude. His two young leads, Natalie Press and Emily Blunt create a delectable, upwardly-mobile soufflé of a film. Even as its mood turns dark, this tone is managed with superb insouciance, helped by a saturnine performance from Paddy Considine. When the summer ends, as all summers must, sexual obsession, claustrophobia and despair are elegantly resolved with a clever twist in the narrative tail. It's a movie that has conquered festivals at Edinburgh and Toronto, and for me is even better on a second viewing, a gem of intelligent, absorbing film-making.” — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.

"Lush and sensual… My Summer of Love combines the elegance of a minuet with the passionate ferocity of flamenco.” — Karen Durbin, Elle