Five Days One Summer


Five Days One Summer is a 1982 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Sean Connery. It was the last film that Zinnemann directed.

Plot

Douglas Meredith, a middle-aged Scottish doctor is on vacation in the Alps in 1932 with a young woman, Kate, whom he introduces as his wife. Douglas has brought Kate to the Alps for a mountain climbing trip. Douglas and Kate are absorbed with a psychological melancholy. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that Kate has been in love with Douglas since she was a young girl and that she had seduced him away from another woman. The flashbacks also reveal that Kate is actually his niece. But then, in their mountain retreat, a handsome climbing guide appears and develops an attraction for Kate. A love triangle ensues, but in the end, during a mountaineering trip, only one man comes down safely while the other falls to his death. Either one's demise means enormous tears for Kate. But which one survives?

Cast

The film was a critical and commercial disaster. Zinnemann remarked "I'm not saying it was a good picture, but there was a degree of viciousness in the reviews. The pleasure some people took in tearing down the film really hurt". He never made another film after that.