Summer Lovers

Plot synopsis:
Americans Michael Pappas (Peter Gallagher) and Cathy Featherstone (Daryl Hannah), a young couple who have just graduated from college, have known each other about 10 years and have been together about half that time. They vacation for the summer on the Greek island of Santorini. When they visit a nude beach crowded with other young tourists, they are hesitant at first but find themselves getting caught up in the uninhibited energy that surrounds them.
Cathy reads a book of sexual techniques, then ties Michael to the bed and drips candle wax on his chest. She comments that everyone thinks she's "such a Goody Two-Shoes" but she wants a little more adventure.
Michael, who says he has never been with another woman, keeps noticing Lina Broussard (Valerie Quennessen), a French archaeologist on temporary assignment at the nearby Akrotiri excavation. One day, at the beach without Cathy, he gets his chance to talk to Lina and ends up starting an affair with her. He then feels so guilty that Cathy immediately notices something is wrong, and he admits what he has done, insisting that he still loves Cathy.
Cathy is naturally disturbed by this, but tells him to get it out of his system, which he takes as permission to return to Lina. Cathy then goes to a local bar intending to sleep with another man as a way to get revenge against Michael for cheating on her. But in the end she chickens out after getting picked up by an amorous local boy. When Michael comes home later after seeing Lina again, Cathy is angry.
Cathy goes to Lina's home to confront her. Lina assures Cathy that she does not intend to take Michael away from her, which seems to calm Cathy somewhat. Lina and Cathy end up spending several hours together getting acquainted, and find themselves fascinated by each other's work — Lina's archeology and Cathy's photography.
Michael is confused when he learns that the two women are developing a friendship, but he quickly recovers and the three of them spend a few days gradually getting closer. Cathy knows Michael is still sleeping with Lina from time to time, but seems to accept it, although she says it would be difficult for her to see them in bed together. Nevertheless, she tolerates increasing signs of affection between Michael and Lina in her presence.
In a very tense scene one evening, Cathy encourages Michael to kiss Lina. He gives Lina a light peck, but Cathy says it isn't convincing. He gradually turns up the heat while watching Cathy intently for her reaction. He then kisses Cathy, checking to see how this makes Lina feel. The three end up spending the night together. Lina moves in with them, and they continue enjoying the island paradise as a threesome.
Just as the fantasy seems to be a total success, the natural complications of domestic life, like who does the laundry or dishes, come to the foreground. The three work through these problems, but then Cathy's mother (Barbara Rush) appears on a surprise visit, snapping everyone back to reality. Cathy tells her mother she's never been happier in her life. Although Lina claims to be bad at relationships and prefers just "screwing", the three actually seem to be falling in love all around.
Finding herself in an intense relationship, and uncertain about her future with them, Lina begins to fear getting hurt when the summer ends and the Americans return home. They tell her it doesn't have to end, but don't go into any details. To avoid getting too close to her new friends, Lina disappears with another young man, Jan Tolin (Hans van Tongeren), she met at the beach.
Cathy and Michael are distraught, and spend several days searching for Lina. Eventually they conclude they won't find her as long as she wants to remain hidden. But their memories of Lina loom over everything they try to do, and they can no longer enjoy their time on the island. They pack up to return home, even though they have three weeks remaining prepaid on their rental.
Lina finds her fears are outweighed by her feelings for the Americans, and returns to reunite with them, only to discover they have already gone. She races to the airport and intercepts them just as they are about to board the aircraft. Overjoyed at seeing her again, Cathy and Michael return to spend the last three weeks of their summer with her.

Tags: adult comedy

Review:
Two young people vacation on a Greek Island and meet a French woman who has led a rather eclectic life.
It serves to introduce us to Darryl Hannah and Valerie Quennessen, who was lost in an automobile accident in the eighties.If you're looking for a movie that will give you a few laughs, a little titillation and some harmless sexuality, this is a good choice.
Like "Bagdad Cafe", and "Summer of '42" this movie has a certain 'magic' to it that stays with you for a very long time afterward.
It's not due to any one element, but rather, the synergy created between the beautiful cinematography of the lush Greek scenery, the chemistry between the drop-dead gorgeous cast (all at their absolute peak of sexual/physical ripeness), a dynamic, inspiring soundtrack, and a subtle, well-crafted plot (if you can actually call it that...it is more of a skeletal framework...a backdrop against which to explore the issues at hand) It is a more mature examination, a graduate course, if you will, of the sexual revolution.
(I doubt the movie would have had nearly the same effect if the principals were Roseanne & Oprah, with Pauley Shore playing the male lead...) Funny thing, when it came out, prurient minds dismissed it as the quintessential sleazy male fantasy.
5 years before "Dirty Dancing", there was Summer Lovers.The sole tragic note to this movie is that Valerie Quennessen died only 7 years after its release..
A pre-stardom Gallagher brings his self-conscious, sexually naive girlfriend (Hannah) to a splendid Greek island where nudity on the beach is common and sex and drugs are everywhere for the taking.
Expected resentments occur once Hannah finds out, but what sets this apart from the other 2000 stories about adultery that have been filmed is this...once Hannah meets Quennessen, she finds herself enamored of her so much that she starts to encourage the relationship between her and Gallagher.
The best aspects of the film include the tremendously inviting and arresting Greek scenery and architecture, the ultra-pop soundtrack (which is occasionally intrusive) and surprisingly natural performances of the rather green lead actors.
This is a wonderful movie- described by many as an escapist fantasy, but letter perfect in it's depiction of the awkward relationship of European-adventuring couple Gallagher + Darryl Hannah in her most resplendent role (Rent this one-she is nude in 60% of it and have no idea how they pared it down for AMC), the difficult mechanics of a 3-way relationship, the sexual politics of the steamy Greek Isles, the carefree tentative joy of gorgeous twenty somethings on the loose in paradise.
The location on the fabled Greek Island of Santorini (Thera) is breathlessly beautiful- it was annihilated in 1600 BC in a titantic volcanic explosion that wiped out the whole Eastern Med, and probably the source of Atlantis legends- 10 years later ('92) I visited (maybe subconciously from the movie) and still think it's the most beautiful place in the world- 1000 ft.
Think Jackie Kennedy made a bad mistake banning JFK Jr from marrying her- his life would have been far more fulfilled with this magnificent sweetheart than with the hard eyed Bissette, who reportedly demanded he wait for her sister and take off for Martha's Vinyard 1 1/4 hours later than he wanted, into the deadly dusk.This movie uses songs more perfectly than almost any movie I can think of- "I'm so excited", "Everbody needs a little time away"- Chicago, at just the appropriate points.
A few years later I traveled to Greece to visit the different places I saw in the movie and remembered so fondly.
When Michael (Peter Gallagher)turns to Cathy on their first full morning in Santorini and asks, "Don't you feel something?" he is clearly referring not only to Santorini's sparse and rocky beauty, its sense of history, but something perhaps even a bit metaphysical.Valerie Quennessen was lovely -- anyone who'd say she was a "butterface" (as did a previous poster) is a buffoon: "She's quite pretty but her (butter) face." Anyway, I think this movie is great fun and very rewarding despite its technical flaws.
What's worse, a film has to often use dialog in place of looks and feelings that take place and have meaning in a relationship, but that are lost to the observer, and the dialog here often fails.But at the same time, Summer Lovers doesn't blink when looking into freedom of the body, and freedom in relationships.
It is the emotional connection between the three main characters that is central to the plot.For those who don't know what polyamory means, it is basically the ability to love more than one person, and the story does a good job of conveying that concept.
Some people may be disappointed that it isn't more fantastic and dwell more on the passion, but the fact that it attends to the difficulties as well as the fantasies is a point in its favor.In this sense, the movie progresses, as each character starts with certain notions that are evaluated and disposed of, or new notions that are adopted.
The setting is pleasant, and young, fit people are enjoyable to watch, especially when they go skinny-dipping in the Aegean Sea. It isn't something I necessarily want to watch again and again, and the general concept of an emotional threesome may be anathema to some people, but if you are interested in the general concept of polyamory, this might be a good way to get a feel for it..
The biggest disappontment that I got from the movie is finding out that the beautiful Valerie Quennessen died in an auto accident in 1989.
This easy life was a world away from the one in which I lived, so I decided that I would make it one of my goals to go to the Greek Islands to try to recapture any or part of that movie.
I've been several times now to different islands, but the movie makes me want to be part of what they have.
I haven't seen the movie since but have never ever forgotten the feeling that made me travel half way around the world to try to recapture.
The characters really get to you and you almost feel the emotions they are having.I thought Darrell Hannah was beautiful as always and the location was beautiful as well.The type of story was offbeat and not the usual boring love story.I also liked the odd sorts of people that show up during the film.It is a great movie to watch on a rainy day or late at night.I would never have thought to watch the movie by the title so do not let the name fool you.It is a movie I can watch over and over..
One of Daryl Hannah and Peter Gallagher's first films, it is a tale of love and romance set on the incredibly romantic Greek island of Santorini.
In the early '80s I got my first car and being that the VCR was not around to slake my drive to see bad movies right away, I saw a lot of them in the local multiplex west of Pittsburgh.
It's everyone's idea of a sunny Greek vacation crammed into one movie, and that 's why I just love it..
Like most men that have watched this movie, I fell in love with her.
Like many, I was saddened by seeing that Valerie died only 7 years after this movie....I was just crashed.
I hope to one day go to Greece and have a good time like the stars in this movie did.
A movie that makes you feel good.
That said, it's a good thing Daryl Hannah is stunning, and that her character is shy and awkward and doesn't have a whole lot to say, because she's a bit wooden in this early role.
A young couple vacations in Greece, ostensibly to save their rocky relationship, falling rather innocently into a sexual menage with a beautiful archaeologist.
Some of it is truly embarrassing, although the cast is squirrelly and fun, particularly Daryl Hannah (pre-"Splash") as one of those uptight American beauties who learns to loosen up with another woman in her bed.
Peter Gallagher and Daryl Hannah star as a couple who go to the Greek Islands to search beneath the beauty of the country, and the art of the culture.
I have wanted to go to Greece since seeing this movie 20 years ago.
That alone makes this movie worth seeing.I also liked the sexual adventurousness of the film.
of course I saw it again and probably will another ten times.Besides the great aerial view from the Greek islands, the good taste and manners of the nude scenes, wouldn't it be any one´s dream when we were fifteen back in those ages?.Where did we lose this kind of movie?.
Anyway, just wanted to post my opinion about "summer lovers", i think i saw this movie three years ago, or so...
That is reserved for those who are much more well off.So, here we have well off Peter Gallagher (Short Cuts, American Beauty) and his girlfriend Daryl Hannah (Splash, Kill Bill Vol. 2) spending the Summer on Santorini.
Well, it seems that Michael (Gallagher) isn't satisfied with a hot girl on a beautiful island and wants to add Lina (Valérie Quennessen) to his life.
Yes, we see Darryl in her skin debut as she sunbathes nude, and she has a fantastic wet-t-shirt scene, and there are babes galore on the beach topless and fully nude, and on and on, but face it, if you suggested this to your girl and she looked like Daryl Hannah, she would probably tell you to take a hike..
Yes, I saw this as a total "guy" light porn fantasy film...lovely locals...two women...two willing women...better yet: one blonde one brunette...one foreign...one familiar...lots of abandon...lots of freedom...to me it equaled: lots of boredom.
Instead it looked like a film that some hollywood guy who had lotsa ties put together in hopes we would all accept what would go on in his mind as reality and sexual responsibility would play a huge role in how one chooses casual partners.
But I have to admit the best parts of this film to me was seeing Hans van Tongeren in a short part because I loved him in "Spetters"...so I thought his career and notice was on the rise here in America (later I found out he died, what a tragedy!!!) and the song "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago which turned out to be a big hit of that time since their career was ALMOST forgotten until this.
I caught the majority of this movie on AMC about a month ago, and being that I was on the island of Santorini this time a year ago, I put the remote down and enjoyed this flick, and it was even the edited version- not one naked body did I see.
But beyond that, the movie left me with a good feeling when it was over; the care-free attitudes, beautiful scenery, and shedding of traditional American ideals of relationships made me want to see it again as soon as it was over.
There are quite a number of beautiful people in the film and many of them are half dressed or naked while sunning or swimming.I am not a huge fan of Peter Gallagher, but his character Michael Pappas pulls off every guy's dream of getting his girlfriend to approve of him fooling around with another woman.
Daryl Hannah is his American girlfriend Cathy who is looking to grow, become more open and sexually move away from her "nice girl" persona in Santorini.
Valérie Quennessen is the lovely other woman Lina who eventually moves in with Michael and Cathy at their villa just across the way from hers.
The chemistry was there especially in Valerie Q's (Lina) long looks at Darryl Hannah while they sunned or talked over wine.So there is little plot and the little there is has no substance this is a feel good movie which just doesn't feel good enough due to the heterocentric hero's mugging.
This is a perfect movie to get someone you love ready to drop it all and fly to Greece.
An American couple (Peter Gallagher and Daryl Hannah) take a vacation to the beautiful Greek islands.
And what straight guy wouldn't fantasize about having two beautiful women as lovers on a Greek island?
Adonis-like Peter Gallagher (as Michael Pappas) and gorgeous blonde girlfriend Daryl Hannah (as Cathy Featherstone) go to the Greek islands, for a hot vacation.
But, after seeing sexy French sunbather Valérie Quennessen (as Lina), Mr. Gallagher has a better idea!
Writer/director Randal Kleiser's "Summer Lovers" is more of a modeling than a film assignment for the three stars; but, to their credit, they try to act, as well as look, good.
These interesting asides don't make the film anything greater than lightweight fluff, however.**** Summer Lovers (1982) Randal Kleiser ~ Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannah, Valérie Quennessen.
I only embarked on this movie because I had a romance my self on Santorini in the spring of 1982 (same year the film was shot).
The content is actually a bit hot: a young couple goes into vacations and each one loves and get intimate alone or together with the same woman Today, it would be an almost porn movie whereas in the 80s, it's like a spicy enchanted experience: sure the movie is lucky to have a young Darryl but we don't see much of her skin and we recall foremost her soft, sweet attitude!
The only good thing about this film is the cinematography of the Greek Isles.
Otherwise, it's just a movie version of a pictorial from a men's magazine, although the script (such as it is) has a few touches of Cosmopolitan.You'll love this film if you're into soft core porn, Darryl Hannah, or European brunettes.
Here you have a beautiful paradise filmed entirely in Greece, including the city of Crete, then you have Daryl Hannah's only halfway decent performance to date, finally there is plenty of gratuitous nudity and BANG it still bombs.
Watching Summer Lovers made me want to go to Greece.
Gallagher and Hannah are satisfactory, their hot french friend that makes up the mutual love triangle, is actually better, the life of our three performers.
Right from the opening credits this movie is like being in a time warp.
Alas, the ending of the film was somehow even worse than what I was anticipating halfway through.The story and characters are a tacky framework for a movie which really only has 2 things going for it: beautiful scenery of Greece and nudity.Un428ly, this movie doesn't make it into the "so bad it's funny" category either.
A young couple travels to the islands and discovers sexual freedom.During their stay, they encounter a young beautiful woman (Valerie Quinnesson) who involves them in a mutual love triangle.
American couple Michael Pappas (Peter Gallagher) and Cathy Featherstone (Daryl Hannah) rent a Greek villa for their summer holidays.
Forget the silly story about a young American couple who go to Santorini,Greece and end up having a menage a trois with a French Archaeologist.
See this movie for the spectacular scenery of the most beautiful island in Greece named Santorini and for the nice music..
The first half of this movie has the beaches of Greece (Santorini) littered with the highest concentration of supermodel style bodies I have ever seen.Oh yeah, the plot and acting are above average and character interactions are mildly amusing.Did I mention the great bodies and they are nude!.
the non-sexual relationship between Lina and Kathy was beautiful, warm and loving.
Amorous Michael (hunky Peter Gallagher) and his sweet girlfriend Cathy (Daryl Hannah at her most charming and delectable) are an American couple vacationing on the Greek island of Santorini.
Summer Lovers (1982): Dir: Randal Kleiser / Cast: Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannah, Valerie Quennessen, Barbara Rush, Hans van Tongeren: The Greek Islands offer beauty, history and romance but the title of this film is misleading in its stance on open relationships.
Peter Gallagher plays Michael Pappas and Daryl Hannah plays his girlfriend Cathy Featherstone.
Your Fantasy Acted Out. If you're a woman, you've probably always wanted to visit the Mediterranean islands, bask in the bright bright sunshine, swim in the blue blue water, and dance on the white sandy beaches.And if you're a guy, you're probably always wanted to make it with two good looking babes who seem to be OK about that arrangement.Either way, you get your wish with SUMMER LOVERS.
Michael and Cathy (Peter Gallagher and Daryl Hannah), two college-age sweethearts have come to a Greek island as a sort of pre-nup romp.
Now you might suppose that Daryl Hannah would be more than satisfactory for any man alive, but before many days pass Michael is taking an interest in a sweet young thing in a neighboring cabin, Lena (Valerie Quennessen).
Except, of course, Michael and Cathy have run out of money and their visas have expired and they are not permitted to get any jobs locally, and they don't speak the language, and Lena has none of those problems but how long can she sustain those two nitwits.This is a fantasy -- nice sunny beaches, Daryl Hannah and Valerie Quennessen not wearing much.
Summer Lovers has attractive stars, the boyishly handsome Pater Gallagher, the positively luminous Daryl Hannah, and the incredible magnetism of Valérie Quennessen.
All we really have is the vacationing couple Michael(Gallagher)and Cathy(Hannah)meeting archaeologist Lina(Quennessen), the three bonding over a summer, enjoying the good times that happen every day around the Greek village.
But, pretty much Summer Lovers consists of various scenes where the three enjoy each other's company after an awkward shaky start when Cathy was a bit distanced about the idea of Michael having passionate sex with Lina.
The beginning looks more like a travel ad for Greece than an actual movie.