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Summer of love By Jean-Marc Lalanne
Libération, may 20, 2000
New talent : Summer Phoenix, actress in "Esther Kahn"
Her name is beautiful. Summer, like this summer of love that inspired a generation of young idealistic people, including the girl's parents, a hippie couple who moved to the Californian coast. Phoenix, like the mythological bird, burning and reviving, like Esther Kahn, heroine of Arnaud Desplechin's movie, fiery actress that consumes herself in life and gathers herself back on stage, through her young performer's astonishing grace. Dressed in pink on the Grand Hotel beach, Summer, 22 yrs old, is shy and pretty. Extremely concentrated, she thinks in silence before answering each question and sometimes catches her head in her hands. "My agent and I loved Arnaud's script. Then I saw 'How I had an argument…' [Desplechin's previous movie], that I found great. Esther's character fascinated me because of her determination, the urgency of her quest. As an actress, I don't live things the same way. Esther thinks that life is never as intense as when she is on stage, that everything she feels in her existence must help her to play. Even if I love my work a lot, I don't go that far. When a movie is over, I think sometimes that it was great, sometimes that it was horrible, but at least that it is over." However, Summer's life, like those of her brothers and sisters – River (departed in 1993), Joaquin, Rain (only Liberty didn't become an actress) – is combined with acting. "I started in a commercial for Kodak at 3. So I didn't really have the time to wonder if I wanted to become an actress. Then I did TV series. But from 8 to 16 I stopped." Ever since she did several independent movies, then The Faculty by Roberto Rodriguez and, finally, her first great part in Esther Kahn. What does she expect from her work? "I want to express what people feel, to help them to understand each other, and also to move them". When she's told she's thrilling in the movie, she stands up and hugs you long with a whisper :"You're so kind". We'll learn later, a bit disappointed, that she did the same with our colleagues. No doubt about it, Summer is love.
FranceSoir, may 20, 2000
Official competition. She is Esther Kahn in the Desplechin's movie.
Her eyes are amber-coloured, her voice grave, her maturity obvious. Summer Phoenix, 22 years old, sister of the late River, bears on her silken shoulders Esther Kahn, the movie by Arnaud Desplechin :"He was looking for an American or a British girl, I auditioned for the part in New York. I wanted the part. I waited for 7 months for his answer." Esther Kahn is closed upon herself, even dry. Summer Phoenix is luminous, like her name : "Yet we have a lot in common : this quest for identity, chasing of dream. We differ in that being an actress is not the only aim in my life. I love life, I love love, I love my family, I love music." Ms Phoenix has been making cinema for ever, small independent movies "of which she doesn't remember titles". Esther Kahn is her first movie as leading actress : "I'm not even thinking I could have an award. I don't deserve it. I haven't worked enough yet." Anyway, this affectionate girl doesn't dream of glory, Hollywood or Oscars. She lives in Florida, loves her nephews and avoids talking cinema with her brother Joaquin (also in the competition in The Yards) : "Above all I'd like to succeed in my life" [translation note : I don't know how to translate the meaning of that sentence, it's more about success in a spiritual meaning than in terms of money or fame]. Her mother, who's looking fondly at her, approves with a loving smile.
Les Inrockuptibles N°244, 23-29 may, 2000
Is it the extreme tiredness of this festival's end? When meeting Summer Phoenix, one feels like if in her face would merge those of Samira Makhmalbaf's and Jennifer Connelly's, encountered some days ago. Before the interview, we rather dreamt of a possible resemblance with River, elder of the Phoenix siblings (Mike in My Own Private Idaho, departed in 1993), Joaquin (attending in Cannes with The Yards), Rain (Even Cowgirls Get The Blues), or even Liberty (Kate's Secret). In the end, Summer Joy Phoenix is as beautiful and fresh as her name suggests. One understands that Arnaud Desplechin went as far as Florida to find her to impersonate his Esther Kahn, mirror-part of a promising actress. Rarely a 22 years old American girl has resembled less to a 22 years old American girl. The explanation may be her russian-hungaria-jewish descent on her mother's side, or her very hippie upbringing , nourished with anti-nuclear demonstrations and vegan food. To the question "What do you want in the future?" asked to her character in the movie, Summer replies "Peace of mind, happiness, love." If you retort her that working as an actress may not be the best warrant, she nods. "Shooting a movie, it's becoming mad during two or three months. Then it takes six months to get better." To this she immediately adds, for fear of being misunderstood : "Working as an actress is an incredible chance." She could not be realizing it since she started at 3 in commercials, then TV series. "I didn't have the time to ask myself if I really wanted to do that job. It was there, that's all. My brothers and sisters were doing it too. My true passion, as a kid, was classic piano. I even went through a critical time : I didn't want to act anymore between 8 and 16. Now, since two years, I start to really appreciate this work." And for that, it took Esther's part, her dedication, her intransigeance, her obstination. "To play Esther, the only thing I forbid myself was fear." Her cellular rings : it's her brother Joaquin arriving in Cannes. "We're very close. I can even say it's my mentor. I find he's a fascinating actor. In Gladiators, he makes you understand in a very subtle way how his character became so evil." After her success on the Croisette, Summer doesn't show any particular worry about her possible stardomization. "I was 15 when River died. We've been chased by paparazzi. My parents have been really hurt. But it's like a vaccine : now I don't feel anything when I hear flashes crackling."
Les Cahiers du Cinéma, June 2000
Summer Phoenix, only true revelation of Cannes 2000, smokes American Spirit. She's 22 years old, has an anti-classic face, copper-color eyes and hair accentuated by very dark eyebrows, and a voice with hints of rock, like Esther Kahn's own, this woman-stone with a heart of lava (see the kiss scene where a young boy is struck at guts by the same energy that Esther will, later, be able to deliver on stage). If she started at three, stopped her career a first time at 12 to "swim in waterfalls and ride horses in Central America for four years", her presence in Esther Kahn has the rough grace of a first time. "This French director looking for an American to play the daughter of Jew migrants in East End in London of the 19th century was the most exciting oddness I had ever heard. The casting tests were quite unusual. We met each day for three days, he game me scenes to play from Tess, Deception, the novel by Philip Roth, Bergman. The day I arrived in London, he set up a projection of L'Enfant Sauvage [the Wild Child] by Truffaut, then soon after, Bergman's Monica. " Wasn't Esther's blankness sometimes painful for the actress? Didn't the affective Summer ever feel the need to revolt, to break away all that reserve? "I knew the explosion time would come, I was keeping myself for it. Besides, off screen, I didn't restrain myself, everything went out. The other side of Arnaud Desplechin's generosity and genius is to contradict you endlessly. The four months of shooting were not peaches and cream, very tough. Really tough." Thoughtful, Summer Phoenix gets out of her musing by the unexpected appearance on the beach of two young men. She taps on the table of surprise and leaves us to fall on one's neck. The other one comes and takes Summer's place, in front of us. "What was the question?" he asks, wearing red sunglasses, face not badly fixed, faultless. It's Joaquin Phoenix, very proud to present in Cannes The Yards by James Gray, a movie he considers the best he's ever done. Summer being still busy elsewhere, her brother talks about her to us. "I was shooting Gladiator in London when Summer was doing Esther Kahn there. Of course she worked very hard, and alone. But for me there is no worse sign on a set than when everybody slaps your shoulder and says : congratulations, great. I'm not recommending torture, but you have to be constantly in a state of searching. That was what Summer lived with Esther Kahn : an infinite quest for perfect moments."
Summer or the beautiful summer Marie-Elisabeth Rouchy
Le Nouveau Cinéma, N°11, September 2000
At the Cannes Film Festival, they were two : Summer, who had come to support "Esther Kahn", by Arnaud Desplechin, and Joaquin, her brother, actor in "The Yards", by James Gray. In interviews, Summer played to answer the questions asked to Joaquin, and the other way around. A polite way to tell the press how few important is celebrity to the Phoenix family. Jaded, burnt (translation note : a strange word in that use that is probably to be taken in the metaphorical meaning of branded), Summer, 22, intriguing face of Californian latino, is adamant : "I was 15 when my brother River [one of the actors of "My own private Idaho", passed in 1993], was dead. We've been chased be paparazzi. My parents have suffered a lot from that. Now it's like a vaccine : when I hear flashes crackling, I don't feel anything anymore." (translation note : lazy journalist : this was copied from another article. Besides, "I don't feel anything anymore" is also a quote of Esther Kahn) Immunized against spotlights and nearly insensible to the status of actress, Summer (hippie first name reminding of a folkloric childhood) has the grace of the chosen ones and their indifference. Being, looking : from the age of 3 she doesn't make the difference: "I started in an advirtising for Kodak, I went on to TV series. My brothers and sisters were like me." For her, acting is a second nature. Not a vocation. When asked to draw her future, Summer Phoenix traces lines on the table like children run their finger on a misty glass : "I haven't really decided yet". Of Esther Kahn, Desplechin's movie heroine, Summer has the restrained violence and the distance of great actresses. But refuses to share her pain. "When a movie is done, I sometimes think it was great, sometimes that it was awful, but in any case that it's over." The nicest memory she keeps from the movie : having been chosen by a French director met in London who made her discover "L'enfant Sauvage", by François Truffaut, and "Monica", by Ingmar Bergman, and asked her to recite texts by Philip Roth. "Strange meeting", she says. On the set, Desplechin has not been easy. She doesn't bear him a grudge about it. What movie is coming next? Summer, evanescent, has the carelessness of simple girls. "I'll see…"
Once upon a time Summer Phoenix (translation note : the title plays on the French translation of 'Summer')
by Grégory Alexandre
CinéLive, N° 39, October 2000
She arrives, blonde as Florida sun, innocently playing of a dazzling caramel-colored look mottled with green (translation note : I'm getting tired of the metaphors they use, it's awfully difficult to translate and I don't know if it makes any sense. If it gets too cheesy, feel free to suggest a better translation). Knocked-out by a blink, we stand up and ask for an explanation about that unexpected color change. "I've just finished an awful shooting and I didn't want to be called back for additional takes. Now I'm not at all fitting, it's all right." Without anger or resentment, the story told that way tells much about the emancipation of the last branch of the Noah's ark (translation note : I know, there is no branch to an Ark, but well… journalists…) that is the Phoenix family, which already gave us River, Rain and Joaquin. "And Liberty too, but she's way too busy loving her children to do movies". Show-business is in the family blood's genes (translation note : definitely not a biologist, this journalist), that irrigates a hippie and libertarian clan. The kids will play under the spotlights one after the other without making a big deal of it. Summer, the youngest one, like the other ones. After having stopped five years "because of a retirement from the rest of the world in Central America jungles", she comes back to US at 16 and sees Joaquin in To Die For. It's a revelation. But the road will be long to the casting for Esther Kahn, for which Arnaud Desplechin already saw a lot of candidates. Used to play the girl for flat teenage-movies, there Summer becomes the pasionaria of theater from the early century, interiorized and wild, in a pure French auteur film. "I freaked out when I realized what I was signing for. But I loved the story and I completely trusted in Arnaud. He's a genius guy, passionate. Yet, when I saw the movie finished, I didn't know what to tell him. It's only when I thought of it after that it wonderfully enlightened." Disappointed by the pre-marketed scripts that she reads in USA, Summer considers making a career in Europe, more in tune with her ambitions. "And don't come and tell me that I'm biting the hand that feeds me : I don't get the food yet!" . Ranking Mike Leigh on top of her favorite directors or telling about her emotion when she saw Bresson's Pickpocket ("You have to force yourself to hold on to the end, but the reward is huge"), Summer knows that she doesn't quite fit with the present time standards. "I'm all emotion. I want to give everything to everyone, be here and now for each second in my life. But I know it doesn't work that way". If only…
Studio Magazine N°160, October 2000
She was one of Cannes' revelations with her terrific performance in Esther Kahn. After River and Joaquin, she places once more the name of Phoenix to the top. Portrait.
When summer had come, Summer had changed... The one who was discovered brunette in May at Cannes in Esther Kahn, by Arnaud Desplechin, wears blond hair in this month of September. But you immediately recognize on her face and in her black look this intensity that, at 22 years, made possible to her to sublimate that part of a girl living in the London of the XIXth century, within a Jewish immigrant family and deciding, in spite of everyone, to accomplish her dream : to become an actress. This dream has probably never really been Summer Phoenix's own, as this work seems to have been written in her from the start, before she even had the opportunity to think of it. "With my brothers and my sisters, when we were children, we sang in the streets of Los Angeles to earn money. And very naturally, we shifted from street singers to artistic careers". As a matter of fact, she is 9 years old when, after some TV movies, she plays in her first feature film, Russkies by Rick Rosenthal (unreleased in France), in which she plays the sister of... her own brother, Joaquin. The family always was essential in her life. Youngest of the five Phoenix children, as soon as she evokes her brothers and sisters, her heart is carried away. "They will always be my best friends, she says. Joaquin, for example, lives right in front of me in New York and we see each other every day". Those that fell under the charm of this radiant actress in Esther Kahn will never thank enough Gladiator's Commodus. "At 12, tells Summer Phoenix, I stopped everything. I had enough of it, I left to live another life in Central America, close to the nature... Four years later, I came back and settled in New York. Just when Gus Van Sant's movie To Die For was released, in which played Joaquin. It was a real shock! It is indeed my brother's performance that gave me back the desire of this profession. He is my mentor. His ideas, his reflections inspire me every day. For Esther Kahn, I didn't care what the others thought, as long as he had liked it".
She already considers Esther Kahn as the role of her life
Esther Kahn is the first leading role of Summer Phoenix, who, since her return in 97 in Arresting Gena, played in many small independent movies, unreleased in France. "It is my agent who told me about Arnaud's movie, she remembers. I adored his script. The story overthrown me and I liked the character of Esther so much... Arnaud came four days in New York for the casting, but I have only had ten minutes to speak to him during our first appointment. I don't know why, I was sure that he hated me! That didn't stop me from going up again in tears to see the casting director to tell him that I desperately wanted to be in this movie. And he reassured me: Arnaud had kept me for readings". Three auditions later, she will hear the final yes, but... six days only before the beginning of the shooting. "It left few time to work, but in any case, I didn't see how to prepare to what I would have to do! I really couldn't imagine where all that was going to lead me. On Arnaud's request, I only watched The Wild Child by Truffaut and Monika by Bergman, to draw my inspiration from it. To throw a light on her path, she also relied on Desplechin's preciseness, whose work leaves few space to improvisation. "Arnaud is a true perfectionist, but, for that reason, it is an incredible comfort for an actress". During this shooting, and in spite of the requirement, Summer confesses to never have felt pressure, but remembers of complex moments, like when she plays Esther interpreting Hedda Gabler on stage. "There, it was the chaos in my head. I didn't know anymore who I was: me, Esther, or Esther playing Hedda. For these 15 minutes of movie, we turned 14 days for as many nervous bursts". Did she find there answers to questions that, in the movie, Nathan, the professor, asks Esther, like the impossibility to play sufferings without having suffered? "It is impossible to answer simply by yes or no. I think that you cannot play in a realistic way a feeling that you've never felt. But you're not going to die to play a dead person or to sleep with your father to play an incest!" More than theoretical solutions, Summer found on the shooting of Esther Kahn new methods of work. "I learned not to take things literally. When you read in a script: "She says, in a condescending way"..., spontaneously, you try to play condescension. Arnaud showed me that you had to try to play the opposite. It offers a so larger range of acting". With an incredible energy, she could speak for hours of Esther Kahn. A lot more than of the two movies that she played since, and that she confesses being not very proud of. According to her, her dream as an actress is behind her. "After Esther Kahn, I could stop everything!" she assures. You don't want to believe her, especially as she immediately evokes another wish, born from a discussion with her friend, who imagined her in the role of an amnesiac. "That is true, I would like to play several characters in one". Until a producer fulfills this wish, she's going to meet again Pascal Caucheteux, the producer of Desplechin. Before, she lets go a last confidence. The words that the little girl she was would tell to the actress she is: " Have fun, try to enjoy more every moment ".
Side note : Summer, 22 years, is the youngest of the Phoenix children. The eldest River (famous with My Own Private Idaho) died in 1993 at 23. Then comes Rain, 27 years (seen in Even Cowgirls Get The Blues), then Joaquin, 26 years, - whose other forename is Leaf -, (who became famous in Gladiator), and finally Liberty, 24 years, the only one who's not making a career in the movie business.
Numéro, N° 17, October 2000Sister of River, daughter of hippies and lover of all things lovely, 22-year-old actress Summer Phoenix is winning over the mean streets of Hollywood.