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Light in the Piazza - 1962
Directed by Guy Green
Written by Julius J. Epstein
Based on a novel by Elizabeth Spencer
Starring Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton & Barry Sullivan
There are spoilers in this review
A summer in Florence is a fine time and place to fall in love, and nothing much should ever stand in the way of true love - or at least, that's a fine sentiment if you overlook the myriad complexities and thousand instances of "unless" you might care to mention for various reasons. In Light in the Piazza, the circumstances are curious - to say the least. Meg Johnson (Olivia de Havilland) has a 26-year-old daughter, Clara (Yvette Mimieux), who has the mental age of a 10-year-old due to a kick in the head a Shetland pony once gave her, leaving a lasting physical scar and a permanent disability. Fabrizio Naccarelli (George Hamilton) becomes enamoured with her - to the point of checking with hotel staff to find out where the Johnson's are going each day. The longer this goes on, the more uncomfortable Meg becomes with a flowering courtship she should nip in the bud - but doesn't. When she sees the way the two act together, and meets Fabrizio's father Signor Naccarelli (Rossano Brazzi) she finds it hard to tell him the truth about Clara, and the longer she waits, the deeper into the situation they all become.
I particularly enjoyed the moral questions that were posed in Light in the Piazza, and the way Meg seems willing to cross a kind of Rubicon of 'going against accepted morals' by not behaving the way she strictly should, all for the good of Clara - we hope. The movie had me fooled many times, and I can't tell you the number of instances when I was screaming at this character to tell either the younger or elder Naccarelli (or anyone in the Naccarelli family) the plain facts about her daughter. Then again, at the very start of the film I thought Fabrizio was up to no good, and looking for something cheap - simply because of his dishonesty and the way he stalked these two tourists. Am I that bad at affirming the motivations of a character in a movie? Maybe. Or maybe when I learned about Clara's condition, I immediately felt protective of her and how the men in Florence would view her - a 26-year-old hottie with a vibrant attitude and trusting manner. As Meg tried to discourage Fabrizio, I thought she wasn't going far enough. I'm sure that in some countries at the time, she might have been within her rights to shoot him. (I'm kidding of course.)
Once I realised what was really going on in these character's minds, I did a complete 180 degree turn, and was demanding that Fabrizio be allowed to marry Clara. By then we'd met Clara's father, Noel (Barry Sullivan) - a stern, no-nonsense man without a romantic bone in his body. He's set to send Clara into an institution once the two get back to the States, just to get her the hell out of the nest. Obviously I reacted to this in the exact way the movie wanted me to, and I stared daggers every time Sullivan was onscreen. But at the same time - was any of this right? Isn't not telling the Naccarelli's about Clara's condition a kind of massive no-no? I mean, I get the fairy-tale - but that question both ate me up and delighted me in this movie - and good on the movie for doing that to me. Movies are great for posing moral questions that have both positive and negative outcomes. It was posing a huge one, and while it rested on Meg Johnson's shoulders it was up to Olivia de Havilland to bear the brunt of it - which she did magnificently. A combination of terror and delight lights up her face every time she's staring into that abyss.
In the meantime, the Johnsons do go to Rome for a week or so on a sojourn - allowing Czech cinematographer Otto Heller (who had worked on Peeping Tom, The Ladykillers and Alfie in England) to use more fabulously fabled locations as backdrops for this drama. The score from Mario Nascimbene, busy at the time, has an Italian flavour to it, and is always cheerfully light and breezy. The handsome George Hamilton was nominated for a BAFTA - but the film remains curiously underseen - it wasn't a box office success, but it's good enough to have at least deserved a moderate amount of fortune. Our time spent in the Piazza della Signoria is really fantastic, and adds a touch of going on a tour in Florence - to which is added the Uffizi Gallery, and once we get to Rome the Via Veneto and Roma Ostiense railway station. Hell, while in the Piazza, Olivia de Havilland, in character, throws out a fact or two as a kind of audience guide. All very romantic and continental - and nice added touches to the movie.
So, overall a really energizing, kind of morally ambiguous tale of whether a mother informs or withholds information from the family of the guy courting her mentally disabled daughter. Did she do the right thing or the wrong thing in the end? I guess that depends on perspective, but only to a degree. It's a nice change of pace though, to see a movie where a character takes that particularly enigmatic route. Other than that it's also a strange romance, scenic tour, and a movie which questions just how we should treat people with this type of mental affliction. I mean, should people with the mental age of 10 be treated as children, or should they be treated as adults when they grow up? This seems to have been an ongoing question amongst the Johnsons, and by the sounds of it one they haven't sorted out yet. Olivia de Havilland really infused her character with the yearning that her daughter be happy, and she knew that being in an institution would have curbed most hopes for a really great future, and sunny outlook. To do this for her daughter, she was willing to go against the grain and really surprise everyone - me included. Light in the Piazza had me very unsure at first, and completely befuddled by Meg - it's only later where it becomes clear. It was something a little different, and a little daring, and interesting. Against the grain.
Light in the Piazza - 1962
Directed by Guy Green
Written by Julius J. Epstein
Based on a novel by Elizabeth Spencer
Starring Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton & Barry Sullivan
There are spoilers in this review
A summer in Florence is a fine time and place to fall in love, and nothing much should ever stand in the way of true love - or at least, that's a fine sentiment if you overlook the myriad complexities and thousand instances of "unless" you might care to mention for various reasons. In Light in the Piazza, the circumstances are curious - to say the least. Meg Johnson (Olivia de Havilland) has a 26-year-old daughter, Clara (Yvette Mimieux), who has the mental age of a 10-year-old due to a kick in the head a Shetland pony once gave her, leaving a lasting physical scar and a permanent disability. Fabrizio Naccarelli (George Hamilton) becomes enamoured with her - to the point of checking with hotel staff to find out where the Johnson's are going each day. The longer this goes on, the more uncomfortable Meg becomes with a flowering courtship she should nip in the bud - but doesn't. When she sees the way the two act together, and meets Fabrizio's father Signor Naccarelli (Rossano Brazzi) she finds it hard to tell him the truth about Clara, and the longer she waits, the deeper into the situation they all become.
I particularly enjoyed the moral questions that were posed in Light in the Piazza, and the way Meg seems willing to cross a kind of Rubicon of 'going against accepted morals' by not behaving the way she strictly should, all for the good of Clara - we hope. The movie had me fooled many times, and I can't tell you the number of instances when I was screaming at this character to tell either the younger or elder Naccarelli (or anyone in the Naccarelli family) the plain facts about her daughter. Then again, at the very start of the film I thought Fabrizio was up to no good, and looking for something cheap - simply because of his dishonesty and the way he stalked these two tourists. Am I that bad at affirming the motivations of a character in a movie? Maybe. Or maybe when I learned about Clara's condition, I immediately felt protective of her and how the men in Florence would view her - a 26-year-old hottie with a vibrant attitude and trusting manner. As Meg tried to discourage Fabrizio, I thought she wasn't going far enough. I'm sure that in some countries at the time, she might have been within her rights to shoot him. (I'm kidding of course.)
Once I realised what was really going on in these character's minds, I did a complete 180 degree turn, and was demanding that Fabrizio be allowed to marry Clara. By then we'd met Clara's father, Noel (Barry Sullivan) - a stern, no-nonsense man without a romantic bone in his body. He's set to send Clara into an institution once the two get back to the States, just to get her the hell out of the nest. Obviously I reacted to this in the exact way the movie wanted me to, and I stared daggers every time Sullivan was onscreen. But at the same time - was any of this right? Isn't not telling the Naccarelli's about Clara's condition a kind of massive no-no? I mean, I get the fairy-tale - but that question both ate me up and delighted me in this movie - and good on the movie for doing that to me. Movies are great for posing moral questions that have both positive and negative outcomes. It was posing a huge one, and while it rested on Meg Johnson's shoulders it was up to Olivia de Havilland to bear the brunt of it - which she did magnificently. A combination of terror and delight lights up her face every time she's staring into that abyss.
In the meantime, the Johnsons do go to Rome for a week or so on a sojourn - allowing Czech cinematographer Otto Heller (who had worked on Peeping Tom, The Ladykillers and Alfie in England) to use more fabulously fabled locations as backdrops for this drama. The score from Mario Nascimbene, busy at the time, has an Italian flavour to it, and is always cheerfully light and breezy. The handsome George Hamilton was nominated for a BAFTA - but the film remains curiously underseen - it wasn't a box office success, but it's good enough to have at least deserved a moderate amount of fortune. Our time spent in the Piazza della Signoria is really fantastic, and adds a touch of going on a tour in Florence - to which is added the Uffizi Gallery, and once we get to Rome the Via Veneto and Roma Ostiense railway station. Hell, while in the Piazza, Olivia de Havilland, in character, throws out a fact or two as a kind of audience guide. All very romantic and continental - and nice added touches to the movie.
So, overall a really energizing, kind of morally ambiguous tale of whether a mother informs or withholds information from the family of the guy courting her mentally disabled daughter. Did she do the right thing or the wrong thing in the end? I guess that depends on perspective, but only to a degree. It's a nice change of pace though, to see a movie where a character takes that particularly enigmatic route. Other than that it's also a strange romance, scenic tour, and a movie which questions just how we should treat people with this type of mental affliction. I mean, should people with the mental age of 10 be treated as children, or should they be treated as adults when they grow up? This seems to have been an ongoing question amongst the Johnsons, and by the sounds of it one they haven't sorted out yet. Olivia de Havilland really infused her character with the yearning that her daughter be happy, and she knew that being in an institution would have curbed most hopes for a really great future, and sunny outlook. To do this for her daughter, she was willing to go against the grain and really surprise everyone - me included. Light in the Piazza had me very unsure at first, and completely befuddled by Meg - it's only later where it becomes clear. It was something a little different, and a little daring, and interesting. Against the grain.