Indian Summer (1972)

Indian Summer (1972) is the kind of romantic drama that doesn’t chase your affection—it earns it, slowly, with the hush of seaside air and the ache of people who know they’re drifting. Set in Rimini and photographed with a cool, sun-bleached elegance, it watches Alain Delon’s poetry professor-gambler move through a temporary life that feels both seductive and quietly doomed, while Giancarlo Giannini brings a charged, lived-in edge to the world around him. The mood is deliberately cold and melancholic, less a sweeping love story than a fascinating character study where every glance and silence carries weight. If you need warmth or easy catharsis, it may feel austere, but if you’re drawn to beautiful cinema that lingers like an unresolved thought, it’s deeply rewarding.

Indian Summer wants to be a moody, sun-drenched Italian romance-drama about a drifting teacher/gambler and the dangerous pull of a student relationship, with Rimini as the languid backdrop. The problem is it often feels like it’s running on fumes: the plot telegraphs its turns early, the script doesn’t dig deep enough to make the emotional stakes land, and the pacing can be so slow it starts to feel inert rather than atmospheric. If you’re allergic to melodrama, sentimental gloom, or films that mistake brooding for depth (with a soundtrack that can clash with the mood), this likely won’t be your kind of summer. Still, if you enjoy older European dramas that lean into melancholy vibes and seaside ennui more than story momentum, you may find something to appreciate.