Blu-ray, DVD Release: Summertime

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 12, 2022
Price: DVD $22.99, Blu-ray $19.99
Studio: Criterion


With the sublimely bittersweet 1955 tale of romantic longing Summertime, director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia) left behind the British soundstage to capture in radiant Technicolor the sun-splashed glory of Venice at the height of summer.

In a tour de force of fearless vulnerability, Katharine Hepburn portrays the conflicting emotions that stir the heart of a lonely, middle-aged American tourist who is forced to confront her insecurities when she is drawn into a seemingly impossible affair with a charming Italian shopkeeper (Rossano Brazzi) amid the ancient city’s canals and piazzas.

Lean’s personal favorite among his own films, Summertime is an exquisitely tender evocation of the magic and melancholy of a fleeting, not-quite-fairy-tale romance.

And here the bonus package:

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interview with film historian Melanie Williams
  • Interview from 1963 with director David Lean
  • Audio excerpts from a 1988 interview with cinematographer Jack Hildyard
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • An essay by film critic Stephanie Zacharek
Buy or Rent Summertime

About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.