Summer Phoenix

Summer Phoenix

Studio Magazine, October 2000

In English : filmography - Esther Kahn, the movie - This Is Our Youth, the play
articles (page 1] - articles (page 2) - articles (page 3) - gallery

In French : Summer Phoenix - filmo - Esther Kahn, le film - articles - galerie

On this page :
Updates - Biography - Links

Updates

March 24, 2004 : updates have been rare, but Summer has been busy with other activities than acting, and other fan-sites are being quite good at keeping up to date with it.
So, in the past 2 years, Summer opened a vintage clothes shop in New York with two friends, "Some Odd Rubies". She plays with her sister Rain's band, "Paper Cranes". And she's going to give birth very soon to her first baby, whose father (Casey Affleck) proposed her a few months ago.
On the acting front, her latest movie "Suzie Gold", a British romantic comedy, has been released in UK on March 5, 2004. You'll find details in the articles on this page, and the related pictures in the gallery. The text from the article from the Observer Magazine (March 15, 2004) has not been copied on this site since it's available on the publisher's site.
I also added two sites in the links section.
September 2, 2002 : I've added a picture in the gallery and one of "Dinner Rush" in the filmography.
June 14, 2002 : I've added a whole page about "This is our youth" after seeing it in London.
I've also added 4 articles on a third articles page, and the corresponding 6 pictures in the gallery (4 "normal", 2 "small sized" because they were B&W pics from Time Out and didn't come out too good).
Also added a link.
May, 2002 : Summer, Casey Affleck and Matt Damon are to make their West End debut in Kenneth Lonergan's play "This is Our Youth".
They will be performing at the Garrick Theatre and take over from 22 April until 15 June (following Hayden Christensen, Anna Paquin and Jake Gyllenhaal in the parts).
More information on the official site :
This is our Youth
February 23, 2002 : I added 2 articles in the second article page, and the 4 corresponding pictures to the gallery. I updated the filmography with short info on the two movies Summer shot last year, "The Laramie Project" and "Wasted".
Some US release / broadcast dates :
- "Esther Kahn" will be released in theaters in New York on March 1st, 2002 ; expands to other cities at later dates.
- "The Believer" : Theatrical Release: May 17th, 2002 (LA/NY); expands to other cities at later dates. Cable channel Showtime will probably broadcast it in the next months, since they have postponed its original September 30th, 2001 premiere due to sensitivity over the recent WTC disaster.
- "The Laramie Project" : HBO will air it on March 9th. They moved up the premiere of "The Laramie Project" from March 16th to March 9th in order to avoid competition with NBC who'll be airing its own Matt Shepard movie on the 16th.
- "Wasted" : MTV will premiere it on March 17 at 9PM (ET/PT) (see full article on Yahoo ) Summer says that Rain wrote a song for the movie soundtrack based on a sample of something she (Summer) had done on the piano some time ago.

December 3rd, 2001 : I added 4 beautiful pictures to the gallery, that I moved to a separate page (it grew so much that it took too long to download for a main page). Also added a long article published in UK (on the second page of articles), and updated the filmography with some summaries, pics and new movies.
Some international release dates :

Great-Britain :	"Esther Kahn" (extended version) : November 16th, 2001 (also in September in selected theaters) "The Believer" : December 7th, 2001
Japan :	"Esther Kahn" (short version) : November 2001 (subtitled "Mezamete no toki", which means "The moment of awakening")

I believe "Esther Kahn" was also shown in August 2001 at the Yokohama Film Festival (dedicated to French cinema).
"The Believer" came out in France early this month, but Ryan Gosling got all of the press coverage about it (which is totally earned considering his performance and the fact he plays the main part, it's just that I don't have much to add to the site about it, on the other hand, except a pic - check the filmography page).

August 12, 2001 : "The Believer" is planned to be released in theaters in France on October 10, under the title "Danny Balint". Thanks to Michel Paulson, I've added two pics of it in the filmography
"Esther Kahn" is going to be released in VHS (SECAM standard) and DVD (PAL standard, Zone 2) in France, on September 24, 2001. You can check it at the Fnac for more details, knowing that they mispelled the title as "Ester Kahn" (... well, it's holiday time for everyone I figure...).
I've added some more pics to the page about "Esther Kahn : the movie"

April 13, 2001 : public screening of "Esther Kahn" (director's cut) in Los Angeles this Saturday, April 14th, 2001, for the festival "City of lights, City of Angels" promoting french cinema in US. This will be the US premiere for "Esther Kahn", and will be attended by director Arnaud Desplechin and Summer Phoenix herself.
More info on the festival's site :
http://www.frenchculture.org/cinema/festival/programs/0104cityoflights.html
January 31, 2001 : "The Believer", Summer's new movie, also featuring Ryan Gosling and Billy Zane, has won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. It tells the story of a young jewish student who becomes part of a neo-nazi gang.
October 25, 2000 : I finally achieved to translate Esther Kahn's press cover, I guess : I added a handful of articles in a new page articles (part 2), as well as 5 pictures on this page and 5 on the page about "Esther Kahn : the movie". "Committed" should be released in France on April, 2001.
October 12, 2000 : added two articles again, and two pictures. More to come soon (I'm working on it)...
September 27, 2000 : added two articles and another beautiful picture of Summer with her new blond haircut.
She seems to have changed a lot since Cannes, it's unexpected but she's looking great (even greater than before, that is).
September 24, 2000 : I've seen "Esther Kahn" (twice actually), and wrote an English version of the
Esther Kahn movie page, completed with a review, a character study, various notes and some new pictures.
I also added two pictures on this page in the gallery.
"Esther Kahn" will be released in France and Belgium on October, 4th (in case you wonder, I've seen it at public previews).

In short

She started at a very young age, in an advirtising for Kodak. She later appeared in several TV series and movies - you gotta see her in "Murder, she wrote" or "Kate's secret" (check the filmo page).

At 8 she decided to stop, and it's not until she turned 16 years old that she came back to the movie business. In 1998, she attended courses at the New York Film Institute.

Within these last years she appeared in indie movies such as "Arresting Gena", "Salt Lake City Punk", "Girl". She also played in a music video for the band "Catherine Wheel".

She briefly came back to T.V. to play in the "live" episode of E.R.. - where I actually saw her for the first time. Her first part in a major-produced movie was in Roberto Rodriguez's "The Faculty".

Her first movie as the leading actress, "Esther Kahn", was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2000. And if the movie left some people perplexed at the showings, her performance in it has been acclaimed by most. I've translated in English articles about her published in France after the movie was shown in Cannes.

Esther Kahn is a mysterious character, described as "closed on herself, a stone" by the director. As she discovers theater, though, she opens up to the world, to the point of being able to give more on stage as an actress than any other one. A very challenging character for an actress, and a very tough shooting in London with a part-English, part-American, part-French cast.

More details on my "Esther Kahn" page.

In interviews, Summer appeared as sweet, shy (very shy when confronted to journalists but not half as much in a face-to-face chat. It's really nice for an actress and you don't wonder any longer how she gives so much intensity to her characters : she's just very sensitive) and thoughtful.

She often stands in movies as the outsider girl, the one who doesn't conform to the rules, or the one who thinks by herself - see the way her character, Brandy, questions the punk attitude's deep reasons in "SLC Punk!".

Update : for the French release of "Esther Kahn", Summer appeared with blond short hair, not as shy with journalists (or is she more nervous with journalists than in general? I couldn't blame her for that), and definitely radiant. It's nice to see her happy, I hope the movie will do great and she'll get more parts in which she can express herself.

On a more personal note, thank you for having given your voice, energy and devotion to Esther Kahn, Summer.

Links...

For constantly updated information on her career, check her page at the Internet Movie Database :
Summer Phoenix (IMDB)

Other websites :

The Summer Phoenix Pages
The Rain & Summer Phoenix Page
Esther Kahn's official site - in French only so far
Unofficial Summer Phoenix Fan Site
Rain and Summer News - *NEW*
Phoenix Forever
- a site dedicated to the whole Phoenix family, with frequent news about Summer - *NEW*
Summer Phoenix - *NEW*
Paper Cranes - Rain's band - *NEW*

If you have any comment, e-mail me at d_raven23@hotmail.com.