I would exclude moral judgment of what is presented as a portrait of sexual indulgence. What matters here is the effect such behavior has on the circle of related individuals. That the effect is uniformly negative is damming enough without the overlay of a moral code. Markus is the central character who has driven his wife to the edge of reason by his neglect, driven by his insatiable sex drive: he is bi-sexual and even a pedophile. The irony here is that Markus is both a hunter and the hunted, as the 12 year old Johannes, son of a business partner, has hatched a scheme to help his father with his debts, by seducing Markus in a blackmail scheme. Markus' daughter, Elisabeth, then proceeds to act in support of her father. Had the children been a few years older, this might seem at least plausible. As it is, the film fails to register as tragedy.
9 Reviews
A shocksploitation film
selvadorada3008 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
*** HEAVY SPOILERS*****
Based on my observation, very few people seen this German movie. I'm going to give my honest opinion and curiosity after I finished watching Das sommerhaus. The premise of the story is centered on Markus-- a family man with deviant taste on his sexuality. A bisexual and pedophile. Basically his preference doesn't do any good for his wife, Christine and 12 year old daughter Elisabeth. Enter this 12 year old boy Johannes the son of Markus business partner. So Markus and Johannes get along pretty well when something nasty happened between them. At the end of the film, the kid blackmail Markus and we can see Johannes was killed by Elisabeth.(Is that really happened?) In the whole 100 minutes many strange events takes place that I don't want to elaborate because it's confusing and doesn't make sense, we only focus on Marcus and his attraction to the boy that backfired on him. What annoyed me is that, the writer seems enjoying making a scenario then left the audience hanging without establishing a clear ultimatum. They always make a grey area when you asked yourself "What happened....?". Anyway if you like watching almost trashy and surprising movie this is for you.
PS: I'm happy with the choice of the actors. They suit well for their respected characters. That the reason why I gave it slightly higher rating.
Based on my observation, very few people seen this German movie. I'm going to give my honest opinion and curiosity after I finished watching Das sommerhaus. The premise of the story is centered on Markus-- a family man with deviant taste on his sexuality. A bisexual and pedophile. Basically his preference doesn't do any good for his wife, Christine and 12 year old daughter Elisabeth. Enter this 12 year old boy Johannes the son of Markus business partner. So Markus and Johannes get along pretty well when something nasty happened between them. At the end of the film, the kid blackmail Markus and we can see Johannes was killed by Elisabeth.(Is that really happened?) In the whole 100 minutes many strange events takes place that I don't want to elaborate because it's confusing and doesn't make sense, we only focus on Marcus and his attraction to the boy that backfired on him. What annoyed me is that, the writer seems enjoying making a scenario then left the audience hanging without establishing a clear ultimatum. They always make a grey area when you asked yourself "What happened....?". Anyway if you like watching almost trashy and surprising movie this is for you.
PS: I'm happy with the choice of the actors. They suit well for their respected characters. That the reason why I gave it slightly higher rating.
A missed opportunity.
CabbageCustard19 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This could have been a very good film - and an important film. That's because it deals with an issue that is very prominent in people's mind these days - child abuse - and does so from a most unusual perspective. It recounts the deterioration of a family as the parents drift apart mainly because the father has undisclosed homosexual feelings and has tired of pretending he loves his wife. More than that, the father takes a liking to the pre-teen son of his business partner and sets out to seduce him.
This is very controversial and explosive stuff and could have been a very thought provoking and confronting movie. Instead it is dreary, heavy-handed, unbelievable and totally lacking in subtlety and finesse. None of the characters are particularly believable, especially the two parents. The mother is a neurotic nut case and the father is so slimy and creepy it's not believable that any kid would deign to hang around him. The thing about it is that there is a startling plot twist at the end that almost redeems the movie and just shows how good it could have been if handled better.
This is very controversial and explosive stuff and could have been a very thought provoking and confronting movie. Instead it is dreary, heavy-handed, unbelievable and totally lacking in subtlety and finesse. None of the characters are particularly believable, especially the two parents. The mother is a neurotic nut case and the father is so slimy and creepy it's not believable that any kid would deign to hang around him. The thing about it is that there is a startling plot twist at the end that almost redeems the movie and just shows how good it could have been if handled better.
Weak from start to finish, bad at the very end
Horst_In_Translation21 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Das Sommerhaus" or "The Summer House" is a German movie from 2014 that runs for slightly under 100 minutes. It is the so far most known work by writer and director Curtis Burz and this really says nothing positive about his (lack of) talent unfortunately. I cannot really say anything about the cast as I am not familiar with any of these people sadly and even a huge German film buff like myself does not know them. But this would not be a problem if they story is good. Sadly, here it is not. The title is actually okay sort of as you think of a harmonic place and you already guess correctly that not so harmonic things will happen there. But the plot is a perfect example of an overly ambitious filmmaker who is so desperate for her film to make a difference and be important and relevant that he simply takes everything somewhat dramatic that he can think of and packs it in there. Coming-of-age.? Check. Unhappy marriage? Check. Potential suicide? Check. Pedophilia? Check. Teenage love? Check. Homosexuality? Check. And eventually even murder. Oh well.. at that point it did not matter anyway anymore, even if it was the (almost) final knife scene that really destroyed it all for me and got me to give it an even lower rating than I previously intended to. This film has nothing to do with realism or authenticity. Burz gave it his all to make it as shocking as possible probably hoping that more people would find out about the film this way. He was somewhat right. But he was very wrong when it comes to the creative difference this film makes. Namely none. I do not see this one as a creative achievement at all and they made pretty much nothing out of the suspense, atmosphere and okay setting mentioned in the title. In addition, the acting isn't helping either. Yes the actors are somewhat excused by the way their characters were written, but we shall not forget that they accepted the roles and did nothing with them or even made things worse like the male child actor who is extremely cringeworthy. The rest isn't much better, with the exception of male lead Sten Jacobs perhaps who is at least bearable and looks almost talented next to his underwhelming co-actors. The whole thing is a mess though. I recommend you to stay far far away.
Bizarre but very good film
berenshill24 July 2018
A particularly German film with at times astonishingly vivid sex scenes that seem out of place in a mainstream picture. A few cuts could well have ensured a much better film, however the scenes with Markus and his partner's son Johannes are sublime. There's a fair bit of ambiguity (who is really influencing who) but I found this a plus rather than a negative; a lot is down to the sheer quality of the script and production values. Hollywood this isn't. I thoroughly recommend it.
Bad storyline, bad acting...
gingerhead-9190830 March 2020
Oh boy, where should I even start?
Unconvincing characters, really bad acting, bad character development, and an incredible badly written story!
The way they portrait the "friendship" between the guy and the boy is utterly not plausible too, no kid his age would hang out with a creep like that guy! He's got nothing that kids would consider cool, he's just a creep who can't keep his finger to himself.
Don't waste your time with this movie, it just isn't good!
This story is, alas, not about love
SoverniX4 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Late at night, we managed to find the time and place to get acquainted with this film, in which the relationship of a boy and a man is at the very center of the plot. True, these relations are peculiar, and it is not the boy's fault that what began to happen... I read some reviews where he was called almost the devil in the flesh of a boy's body. He framed, he used a middle-aged loser... I don't agree. The best thing would be to just leave, but everyone chooses for himself. The boy chose this path. And no wonder. Before us is an excellent example of a completely accomplished man who has descended exclusively to primitive instincts. This story is, alas, not about love. This is a film about adults who have lost themselves. And about the children who look at them. . . Reflecting the reality surrounding them with their behavior and actions.
The Ich Factor
NoDakTatum19 October 2023
This uncomfortable look at the disintegration of a modern German family is full of malaise and Bergmanesque ruminations on isolation. Peel away the frou-frou, and what you are left with is the story of reprehensible characters who get everything they deserve. Markus (Sten Jacobs) works in construction with business partner Christopher (Stephan Burgi). I have read that they are architects, but the film doesn't really tell us what they do on projects. Christopher owes over 100,000 Euros thanks to some shady dealings, and Markus agrees to pay some of the tax bill, but not all of it. Christopher tells his son Johannes (Jaspar Fuld) to be nice to his schoolmate, Markus' daughter Elisabeth (Nina Splettstober), not realizing that the burgeoning friendship between the two twelve year olds isn't what Christopher should be worrying about. Markus is having an affair with another man, meeting up for a quickie while Elisabeth waits in the car. Markus' wife is Christine (Anna Altmann), a morose woman with a permanently pained facial expression who never seems to leave the apartment the family shares. Markus eyes Johannes, and invites him to their summer house, a small cottage surrounded by a claustrophobic garden on the outskirts of the city. Markus is grooming Johannes, and trying to juggle his marital problems with Christine. Elisabeth is the victim of Christine's increasingly suicidal nervous breakdown, and Burz forces us to watch the trio watch each other.
Maybe if this family had been semi-normal to begin with, then their eventual downfall would have been more effective. Markus and Christine are vile, exhibiting behavior that the viewer will find repulsive. I might have had some sympathy for Markus and Christine if they didn't engage in partner sexual swapping with Christopher and his girlfriend Anne (Natascha Zimmermann), or Christine wouldn't put her head in a noose while her young daughter watched. Call it what you want, or excuse it how you want, but Markus is a child abuser. You cannot hope things get better for him as he begins to cover his crimes thanks to Johannes popping into his life at the worst times. Despite the subject matter, the cast does very well with what they are given. Christine and Elisabeth speak English to each other, so Elisabeth can get into a good school, and their "secret language" is a nice touch, as is Markus' reaction to it. Even in the halting English scenes, Altmann and Splettstober score, and I thought their interaction worked better than anything else here. Burz did a lot of things- writing, directing, producing, editing; and the film is inexpensive but looks professional and fantastic. The cinematography is bright and beautiful (although the characters are dark and gloomy...yes, we get it), and the mournful Chopin-like piano score is appropriate. Burz introduces a thriller element too late in the film, it feels clumsy and added-on, and I feel like his screenplay isn't so much a study of a family in crisis as a study of a family doing things to make you squirm. Burz doesn't try to shock like Larry Clark does, but he comes close. "The Summer House" is a misstep.
Contains profanity, nudity, sexual content, and very strong adult situations.
Maybe if this family had been semi-normal to begin with, then their eventual downfall would have been more effective. Markus and Christine are vile, exhibiting behavior that the viewer will find repulsive. I might have had some sympathy for Markus and Christine if they didn't engage in partner sexual swapping with Christopher and his girlfriend Anne (Natascha Zimmermann), or Christine wouldn't put her head in a noose while her young daughter watched. Call it what you want, or excuse it how you want, but Markus is a child abuser. You cannot hope things get better for him as he begins to cover his crimes thanks to Johannes popping into his life at the worst times. Despite the subject matter, the cast does very well with what they are given. Christine and Elisabeth speak English to each other, so Elisabeth can get into a good school, and their "secret language" is a nice touch, as is Markus' reaction to it. Even in the halting English scenes, Altmann and Splettstober score, and I thought their interaction worked better than anything else here. Burz did a lot of things- writing, directing, producing, editing; and the film is inexpensive but looks professional and fantastic. The cinematography is bright and beautiful (although the characters are dark and gloomy...yes, we get it), and the mournful Chopin-like piano score is appropriate. Burz introduces a thriller element too late in the film, it feels clumsy and added-on, and I feel like his screenplay isn't so much a study of a family in crisis as a study of a family doing things to make you squirm. Burz doesn't try to shock like Larry Clark does, but he comes close. "The Summer House" is a misstep.
Contains profanity, nudity, sexual content, and very strong adult situations.
Interesting movie but WOW
steeleronaldr12 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I do gotta say that these reviews made me watch this movie and gotta continue with this; they left very little for the imagination. Everything was definitely here. The gay lover, the sexually deprived wife, the bisexual (if that's what you want to refer to him as) and the manipulative kids.
It doesn't take long to figure out who's playing who, was Markus (Sten Jacobs) playing the kid or was Johannes playing Markus. The director who also wrote this didn't sugar-coat one bit to realize just who was using who playing pretty much hard to get. The wife Christine (Anna Altmann) who is sexually deprived and would do anything to get her fix on sex. The daughter Elizabeth (Nina Splettstonber) gives little respect to her mom but idolizes her father (Markus). Yet to get his own fix for same sex pleasure has his secret lover. I say without hesitation that this movie didn't hold much back but with such character backstorys a tighter written storyline would have been a good direction to go in. Now above all that the main character (Markus) allows himself to be a pedophile which only heightens the already juicy story and of course blackmail.
It was obvious that the kid (Johannes) was using (Markus) from the beginning to help his financially hurting dad. WOW if only this was a better made movie with bigger names and a real budget. I was however sucked into this movie easily and the characters themselves were somewhat interesting though they could have been portrayed better.
What hurts the movie is too much for reason, the wife who would do anything for Markus to notice her. And attempt's she tries to commit suicide or seduce other men. The one topic I really didn't see was and though it's mentioned in the description (bisexual) because he was married to a woman. I saw that as a marriage of convenience to further his career and nothing more. It's plainly pointed out that between Markus and Christine there is no love.
What I hated about this was the acting was more or less amateurish and the plot kinda weak for the story it told. You can see that the actor's weren't really trying to convey the message at hand. The weak plotline was so busy throwing new issues that the writer failed to let the characters grow. What I liked was we see how a family is torn apart when one is not in it for the love. In all I feel that somehow it does tell the story on a borderline to protect the kid actors and yet keep the story moving. Finally the movie definitely moves and prevents dragging on.
Sadly this one will get a lot of mixed reviews due to the subject matters this movie presents and not for the story it tells. I gave it 8 out of 10 as I mentioned earlier that if it were a stronger movie with better actors could have taken it over the top.
It doesn't take long to figure out who's playing who, was Markus (Sten Jacobs) playing the kid or was Johannes playing Markus. The director who also wrote this didn't sugar-coat one bit to realize just who was using who playing pretty much hard to get. The wife Christine (Anna Altmann) who is sexually deprived and would do anything to get her fix on sex. The daughter Elizabeth (Nina Splettstonber) gives little respect to her mom but idolizes her father (Markus). Yet to get his own fix for same sex pleasure has his secret lover. I say without hesitation that this movie didn't hold much back but with such character backstorys a tighter written storyline would have been a good direction to go in. Now above all that the main character (Markus) allows himself to be a pedophile which only heightens the already juicy story and of course blackmail.
It was obvious that the kid (Johannes) was using (Markus) from the beginning to help his financially hurting dad. WOW if only this was a better made movie with bigger names and a real budget. I was however sucked into this movie easily and the characters themselves were somewhat interesting though they could have been portrayed better.
What hurts the movie is too much for reason, the wife who would do anything for Markus to notice her. And attempt's she tries to commit suicide or seduce other men. The one topic I really didn't see was and though it's mentioned in the description (bisexual) because he was married to a woman. I saw that as a marriage of convenience to further his career and nothing more. It's plainly pointed out that between Markus and Christine there is no love.
What I hated about this was the acting was more or less amateurish and the plot kinda weak for the story it told. You can see that the actor's weren't really trying to convey the message at hand. The weak plotline was so busy throwing new issues that the writer failed to let the characters grow. What I liked was we see how a family is torn apart when one is not in it for the love. In all I feel that somehow it does tell the story on a borderline to protect the kid actors and yet keep the story moving. Finally the movie definitely moves and prevents dragging on.
Sadly this one will get a lot of mixed reviews due to the subject matters this movie presents and not for the story it tells. I gave it 8 out of 10 as I mentioned earlier that if it were a stronger movie with better actors could have taken it over the top.
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