Il suffit d'une nuit

The only reason to see UP AT THE VILLA is the performances by a wonderful cast. Kristen Scott Thomas does a good job as a poor widow who is being courted by many different men. The most interesting is the amazing Sean Penn- yet again taking on an interesting role. The story is bland and sometimes painfully boring, but Thomas and Penn make this worth seeing.

This was a little surprise recent movie for me..... Considering, I've been watching so many newly released junk, cranking from Hollywood these days....... I mean, to the point, where I was just simply hopeless, wondering, if Hollywood was ever gonna make anymore decent, quality films, ''which made sense''...... I found ''Up At The Villa'' a consistent film, which held on to my attention..... Kristin Scott Thomas plays her role very well.... Her character was believable thru out, and her acting, natural...... Although, I kinda found this film, pretentious at times, involving upper class europeans etc...... Very typical, or maybe just the way, the movie is presented..... Sometimes, the film is too talky, especially, w/ scenes between Kristin & Sean Penn...... Sean Penn, is probably the entire film's, most miscast actor...... He seems so detached from the movie, like he dropped in from somewhere else...... He doesn't have much chemistry w/ Kristin, and their relationship, isn't believable..... It's not even about Sean's physical appearance, but the way her carries himself, and his gestures, when he talks, sounding like he's some rebellious hitman, or druglord, or ganster...... whatever..... As much as he tried to belong, I think, this is not the type of film suitable for him..... I don't even know, why he accepted it, to begin w/....... As such a reputable decent actor, playing an unconvincing role like this, just downgrade's his status......

As novelist, W. Somerset Maugham tends to be somewhat uninspiring; his short stories - frequently rather long - are better, and his essays run the whole gamut from the almost trivial to the almost philosophical. As a writer he is a long long way from novelists like Henry James, Joseph Conrad and Aldous Huxley: his characterization is shallow, unreal, such that wherever he sets his scenes - Pago Pago, Firenze or uptown London - one does not connect too well with the tale in question, which, often, fills one with a feeling akin to dejà vu: one has seen variations on the theme in previous writings of his. Maugham, then, is very much a one-horse matter, and in most cases, with the passing of time, his stories have become rather insipid.

So has 'Up at the Villa'. Even the wonderful Anne Bancroft could do little to rescue this film from being a rather colourless account of well-to-do stiff-upper-lip British people hanging out in Florence on the eve of the Second World War. The dialogues are stiff, wooden, lending much lacklustre to the proceedings and is clearly visible in the performances offered by what, on paper, is a solid cast. But one could not really care whether Kristin Scott Thomas finally made it with Sean Penn, James Fox, or the wretched violinist Jeremy Davies. This last named started off really well, but finally sank into the abjectedness which pervades this film, especially in the second half. The result is a very quaint outdated and outmoded behavioural incursion which ends up being almost farcical, as well as overblown and tedious.

No, this is not in any way comparable to 'Gosford Park' (qv) which is magnificent, again with Ms Scott Thomas, far superior with at once more depth and scintillating dialogues. Given the range of Maugham's writing, no way was this film ever to become comparable with 'Portrait of a Lady' (qv), say, 'The Hours' (qv), say, or even the powerful and majestic TV-mini 'Nostromo' (qv). However, 'Up at the Villa' does serve as a pointer inasmuch as it may show in which direction serious attempts at character-driven or dialogue-driven films may be heading, whether period pieces or not.

Nice photography in the Italian countryside, and am wondering if part of the film was in fact shot further north of Florence, maybe even in the Lombardy region.

It's the late 1930s around Florence. Sir Edgar Swift (James Fox) is the distinguished governor of Bengal who has come to court the widow Mary Panton (Kristin Scott Thomas). She loved her husband as he turned into a drunken gambler who squandered all of their money. Sir Swift proposes to her and she promises an answer upon his return. He leaves her with a gun as he fears a deteriorating security situation. She is hounded by Lucky Leadbetter (Derek Jacobi) who is after fresh-faced English young men. Princess San Ferdinando (Anne Bancroft) is a woman who had many flings and lots of connections. She introduces Mary to playboy Rowley Flint (Sean Penn) at a dinner party. Italian fascist Beppino Leopardi doesn't like Rowley. She rejects Rowley's advances and kicks him out of her car. She almost runs over Karl Richter (Jeremy Davies) who was a bad musician at the party. He's a refugee escaping the Nazis after organizing resistance as a student in Austria. She invites him back to her villa and they spend the night together. Leopardi imposes new restrictions on the foreign presence. Karl becomes unruly and Mary pulls out the gun. Karl takes it away and shoots himself with it. Rowley helps her dispose of the body.

Sean Penn somehow doesn't fit this time and this story. He never disappears into this role. He sticks out in this period piece like a sore thumb. Also the story lacks tension. There is some limited tension with Leopardi but that's resolved well before the end. The romance doesn't have any intensity. This should be a lot better. I do like Jeremy Davies' performance in a minor role.

I was stunned by Kristin Scott Thomas when I first saw her in The Tenth Man (co-starring with Derek Jacobi in that movie too) many years ago. I've tried to catch as many movies with her as possible since then, but she's just never been as good, not even in The English Patient. Much of her material has been extremely dull, incl. Random Hearts and yes, this one, Up At the Villa. The premise of this movie isn't bad, but for some reason it fails to create that engrossing magic that makes all the difference. Kristin's character is too timid and irrational (except for in the end). Jeremy Davies as the poor refugee is not exactly bad, but there's still something totally wrong with his role.

Bancroft is flawless, but can't save the movie. Sean Penn is actually good. I don't like most of his roles in other movies - never have -, but he played a different, more complex and realistic yet rogue-ish character here than the hysterical ones he usually embraces (for God knows what reason), and I thought this actually worked. Still, his and Kristin's characters were just too different to make their romantic tension really believable.

I will give the movie credit for its entire political dimension, though, which wasn't in the original book that this movie is based on. It's rare to see this; in most cases it's the film that leaves out the book's political content.

I rate this movie a 5 out of 10.