Summertime (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
'Summertime' is director David Lean's exquisite, full-throttled romance starring a vulnerable Katharine Hepburn & romantic Rossano Brazzi. The year is 1955 and Hepburn plays Jane Hudson, a 40-something, independent American spinster from Ohio who goes by herself on a 3-week holiday to picturesque Venice, Italy. At the famed Piazza San Marco, Jane scurries away after she spots a lone Italian man, sitting behind her at the outdoor cafe, who gets a real kick out of her touristy attempts to cheer herself by taking photographs of everything she sees with her camera.
The next day, by pure chance, she meets the same dashing man, Renato de Rossi (Brazzi), a literal merchant of Venice, who owns the quaint antique store she entered to buy an 18th c. wine goblet. It takes several meetings & one moonlight stroll until Jane finally loosens up to has an affair with the smooth-talking married man {she discovers this late in the game}. Can & will she depart Venice figuring that it was all worth it?
This is just such an enchanting romantic drama about ... falling in love. It is full of poignant moments, leading to a bittersweet, yet lovely end. Based on a Broadway stage play, the material is light, breezy & incredibly 'open'; that is because it was shot on location in beautiful Venice. The sun-drenched streets & the glistening canals just beckon you to come to them. Credit to Jack Hildyard's spectacular color cinematography for making the film look as exquisitely beguiling as it does.
Hepburn's sensitive portrayal is one of her very best. She's just so vulnerable, here - in ways that you don't always see from the actress. We know she's a superb actress who can nail subtlety with the bat of a teary eye or the wrinkle of her mouth - and that's all here, too - but there's just something so winsome about her Jane. Her performance contributed greatly to this film's critical & box office success. Rossano Brazzi - who we'd see later in 1958's South Pacific - makes for the perfect gentle, amorous object of Jane's desire. David Lean is known for his big epics, but this smaller film was one of his very favorites. Mine, too.
The next day, by pure chance, she meets the same dashing man, Renato de Rossi (Brazzi), a literal merchant of Venice, who owns the quaint antique store she entered to buy an 18th c. wine goblet. It takes several meetings & one moonlight stroll until Jane finally loosens up to has an affair with the smooth-talking married man {she discovers this late in the game}. Can & will she depart Venice figuring that it was all worth it?
This is just such an enchanting romantic drama about ... falling in love. It is full of poignant moments, leading to a bittersweet, yet lovely end. Based on a Broadway stage play, the material is light, breezy & incredibly 'open'; that is because it was shot on location in beautiful Venice. The sun-drenched streets & the glistening canals just beckon you to come to them. Credit to Jack Hildyard's spectacular color cinematography for making the film look as exquisitely beguiling as it does.
Hepburn's sensitive portrayal is one of her very best. She's just so vulnerable, here - in ways that you don't always see from the actress. We know she's a superb actress who can nail subtlety with the bat of a teary eye or the wrinkle of her mouth - and that's all here, too - but there's just something so winsome about her Jane. Her performance contributed greatly to this film's critical & box office success. Rossano Brazzi - who we'd see later in 1958's South Pacific - makes for the perfect gentle, amorous object of Jane's desire. David Lean is known for his big epics, but this smaller film was one of his very favorites. Mine, too.