Summertime

[charliechaplinfan]

I hope I've put this is the right category. It's an out and out romance and I enjoyed every minute.

I did have reservations, Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi, I wasn't sure on the combination but as I'd only seen Rossano Brazzi in South Pacific I remained open minded.

It's directed by David Lean and although it's technicolour to me I'm back in the world of Rachmaninov and Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. Like the earlier film it doesn't deal with first love but love between people who have lived and they have the gorgeous back drop of Venice. I can't remember a film where a location was used as beautifully throughout the film. Venice is a stunning place, it is so rich, so vibrant, so full of colour, landmarks are used time and again from different angles, views upwards, across rooftops, down canal ways. I feel I know Venice like the back of my hand.

Katharine Hepburn pays an American secretary who has saved up for a long time to take this trip to Venice but the romance of the place only reinforces her lonliness, by chance she meets a Venetian shopkeeper, she's hesitant but he has seen something in her and persists. He charms her and one by one breaks down the barriers she has erected, they experience a holiday love affair that is made all the more beautiful and poignant for me because they aren't in the first flush of youth. These are two people who have known life and experienced some of it's knockbacks. It's so tender, gentle and romantic.

If there is but one drawback, it's that Kate's Jane is too lonesome, too sorrowful. This just proves to me what a good actress Kate was, to me she's playing a little against the type I have set in my head for her. A romantic and passionate woman who indulges in quite a few love scenes. A brilliany moment is when she falls backwards into the canal, so natural and so comic.

Rossano Brazzi is so much better than he was allowed to be in South Pacific, (he was the best thing in that film) he inhabits the role so much I believe hi to be like his character, I would like him to be like his character. If I wasn't a happily married woman this is the kind of man I would like to fins on a holiday in Venice, so nice

Next time anyone makes a list of David Lean's best films this is going o the top with Brief Encounter. A wonderful love story.

[feaito]

Wonderful review Alison. I also liked this film when I saw it and I recall that funny scene when Kate falls into the canal. I prefer David Lean's films before he went "Epic". "Brief Encounter" is my favorite Lean film.

[moira finnie]

I'm so glad that you had a chance to be enchanted by this David Lean film with the lovely cinematography by Jack Hildyard and several fine performances from the principals. Though I'm always sucked in by the imperishable music in South Pacific, I do agree that Rossano Brazzi gave some warmth and humanity to the film version, as he did to his realistic, yet still loving Venetian in Summertime.

My favorite scene: Kate on the train as it leaves Venice, straining as it curves away from the city to see Rossano on the platform, holding aloft the flower. My eyes water just thinking of it.

If you liked Brazzi in Summertime & South Pacific, I hope that you have a chance to see him in Light in the Piazza (1962) sometime. He plays a minor Italian aristocrat whose kindness toward Olivia De Havilland and her daughter Yvette Mimieux is sometimes misunderstood by the staid American lady (Olivia). It's a sweet story, with lovely views of Italy. It has also been made into a big hit musical here in the states. You might like the movie.

One other Brazzi movie that I just remembered: We The Living (1942) with a very young Rossano Brazzi and Alida Valli as the lovers trying to survive in a totalitarian state. The story is based on Ayn Rand's works, though, since it was made in fascist Italy as an alleged critique of communism, it applies to any country where the government is more important than the people, (and ran into trouble with Mussolini's followers as a result).

In any case, there are not as many goofy didactic Ayn Rand touches in this as there are in The Fountainhead and Brazzi and Valli are magnificently touching.

Btw, did you know that Katharine Hepburn contracted a lifelong eye infection following her dunking in the Venetian canal for Summertime? What they do for art!

[silentscreen]

"Summertime" was an excellent film Alison! Kate's character had to make some tough decisions, but she pulled it off exceedingly well! With age comes wisdom hopefully, and there is a lot more at stake than just a summer romance. Rosanno was a tough guy to resist!

[MissGoddess]

Summertime contains my favorite Katharine Hepburn performance. I think she's perfection as the lonely old maid, especially in those little scenes with the other guests at the pensione (I love the lady who plays the owner and who is having an affair with the American artist). She is so real and I think lonely people everywhere have to be touched by it.

I have the dvd but in September I may get a chance to see a few David Lean movies including Summertime on the big screen. I will at least try to see Brief Encounter, Summertime and Doctor Zhivago. I suppose I should see Lawrence of Arabia, too, but it's never captured me as it does others.

[jdb1]

Oh, how Arthur Laurents, the author of the play, kvetched and moaned in his memoirs about what Hepburn did with it. He sold her the rights, so live with it Artie.

I've never seen the original, which starred Shirley Booth on Broadway. Apparently, the character of Jane Hudson was intended to be much more needy, and bordering on the desperately hysterical about her last chance at finding Romance in Venice. I don't think this would have sat well in a Hepburn portrayal, and she wisely had it changed to suit her much more assertive personality. Not to mention the fact that Hepburn was better looking, and more sexual a presence than was Booth.

I think there is very powerful chemistry between Hepburn and Brazzi -- I believed every minute of it. I love the part where they are in a clinch on the ground, in the marshes of an island, and she's flirting saying "Well, I'll never let you kiss me again . . . . . . Yes I will." And they do. Sigh.

And Lean supposedly had a "thing" for Hepburn, and gave her every change she asked for. Another issue Laurents had a hissy fit about.

[MissGoddess]

If I remember correctly, Laurents whined alot in his commentary for Anastasia, too. Writers can be AWFULLY territorial about their work, it's a common charicteristic. Nunnally Johnson has gone on record to say he thinks a director's contribution is virtually null and that he's there just to get the screenplay on film.

[moira finnie]

In his memoir and his commentaries, Arthur Laurents comes across as a clever fellow, who may never have been wholly resigned to the fact that the theatre and film are a collaborative art.

If I remember correctly, Laurents whined alot in his commentary for Anastasia, too. Writers can be AWFULLY territorial about their work, it's a common characteristic. Nunnally Johnson has gone on record to say he thinks a director's contribution is virtually null and that he's there just to get the screenplay on film.

That's funny, Miss G. I seem to remember that Arthur Laurents was rather pleased with his streamlined script and performances on the commentary for Anastasia, (all but Natalie Schaefer's acting, that is, though I think she's amusing as an effusive White Russian) . He positively purred about how cleverly he extracted the schmaltz from the play that it was based on, replacing it with humor, a delicate irony, and an acknowledgement that the film was a fairy tale, not history. Laurents seemed triumphant that the director, Anatole Litvak, wisely accepted his changes, though he did whine a bit about the opening scene at the Russian Orthodox church, however--something that Litvak, (who was Russian) wanted. I think the director was right too. It's very effective.

Here's a nice scene from Summertime, showing how well Hepburn and Brazzi played together. Their give and take is beautifully done. Enjoy:
[youtube][/youtube]

[MissGoddess]

Hi Moira, it may have been Laurents "tone" that gave me the impression of being touchy about his contributions (and a bit snooty about Hollywood in general), which I've picked up on. I've noticed that attitude in the writings of many other scripters and I can understand their point of view.

[jdb1]

And she had to do it more than once to get the shot.

[jdb1]

By the way, Moira, I meant to tell you that I like your blog photo -- it makes me think of a Stevie Nicks album cover -- not one in particular, just the look of it. (But I keep my visions to myself.)

[moira finnie]

Thanks, Judith.
Do you mean the Pierre-Louise Pierson photo of the Comtesse de Castiglione photo on the Wordpress blog

or the one of the puppy dog on the TCM Movie Morlocks blog?


Either way, Stevie Nicks, during various incarnations might just bear some resemblance to the photo, don'cha think?

[jdb1]

It's Madame La Comtesse I was referring to.

Stevie seems to go for those enigmatic poses. The dog photo would be too straightforward for her tastes, I think, although she does have dogs and probably has lots of pictures of them for her own enjoyment. And she has one of those singing basses, too.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm glad this movie has touched others too.

Moira the picture you posted really captures what sentiment in the movie. They do have superb chemistry.

I read about her eye infection on the imdb. It is a brilliant sequence, I thought she would have stopped herself. How many times did she have to fall and throw the camera, how many cameras ended up in the Venetian canals. If I was the little boy who caught the camera I'm sure I'd have goofed.

The ending, I truly didn't know how it would end. I didn't think she would stay in Italy, I agree with Moira, I think that is the best scene in the picture. If it's not that one it's the one were he is laid down and she tells him she won't kiss him anymore.

It's made me reappraise Katharine Hepburn, I already had her pegged as one of the greats. Now I think she is even greater

[jdb1]

Alison, I think in Hepburn's memoirs she said she had to do the fall three times, which isn't so bad. Fortunately for her she was athletic and strong, so it didn't take much for her to get it right.

Ugh, I can't even imagine jumping into that canal - especially back in 1955.

By the way, I've been thinking that those scenes of the train entering and leaving the city have stayed in the back of my memory all these years. I suppose I saw it in a theater when it first came out, and I was just a very little girl then. It's for sure I didn't otherwise have a clue as to what was going on, and my only interest in the movie would have likely been that little boy. I don't have any ancient memories of Hepburn's fall, but I do remember the red glass. Probably because our world was still mostly a black and white world then, and seeing color on a TV or movie screen was a treat.