Les amants de Capri

Two years before Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck tripped the light fantastic in Roman Holiday, Paramount was already exploring the possibilities of shooting in Italy with September Affair. One only wishes that Paramount had splurged for color the way 20th Century Fox did in Three Coins In A Fountain.

Using the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson as a theme, a pair of mature individuals have a mid life fling in Italy. What Joseph Cotten and Joan Fontaine are handed is a one in a million chance to escape their lives and responsibilities when they miss an airplane flight going to the United States and their families and friends think they've died.

Cotten is an engineer who is going through his usual midlife crisis as his marriage to Jessica Tandy has grown stale. Fontaine is unmarried and has not seen America since 1938. She's devoted herself to preparing for a career as a concert pianist. I wish the film had devoted some explanation as to why she was stuck in an enemy country during World War II and what she did to survive. They meet on the plane, but don't reboard when it comes down in Naples for repairs that obviously were not successful.

In order to support them. Cotten pre-dates a check to Francoise Rosay who is Fontaine's mentor for a large palazzo in Florence. Pre-dates to before the crash and when the estate is being tallied up, Tandy notices it, but let's it slide through.

It's an idyllic setting for lovers, but pretty soon conscience calls and it practically shouts when Tandy and their son Robert Arthur visit Italy.

September Affair is a wonderful picture about mature people for mature people. Cotten and Fontaine have a wonderful chemistry and Jessica Tandy's performance is pure poignancy. It holds up very well after 60 years.

Just wish it was in color.

This is my favourite movie of all time.

I often watch this with friends and family who have never seen the movie and I dare not tell the ending. It is very romantic and at the same time a bit sappy as hollywood Romance movies go.

This movie along with An Affair To Remember and Imitation of Life will have most of you in tears. A great 3-pack weekend tear-jerker selection.

September Affair is unique in the sense that even though the plot line seems far fetched...It actually could happen and has probably crossed a few peoples minds at that. This movie is not to be missed.

Do not Rent this one, purchase it and I assure you you will watch this one over, and over again. I give this movie a 10 out of 10.

Enjoy all you lovers.

Peter.

All the comments about this film are favorable except for Mr. Neil Doyle's. I wonder what grumpy pill he took when he watched this or maybe he just isn't a romantic guy. Not one person said his review was "helpful."

This film is well-acted, scripted, and an interesting premise. The music is fabulous and the setting great. Like another reviewer said, Joan Fontaine's facial expressions say as much or more than the words she was given to speak. She is one excellent actress and Joseph Cotten is a veteran actor who once again turns in a fabulous performance.

I unconditionally recommend this movie to all classic movie lovers to fans of Joan Fontaine and/or Joseph Cotten and to all romantics everywhere.

This is one of my very favourite films. It is about two people who are approaching early middle age having a chance at real unconditional love - and taking that chance. The casting is so wonderful and the setting is just beautiful. Although, it is an American film it has the ambiance of the post war realism of a an Italian film (Never Take No For An Answer also has this realism). The film is romantic and yet it is unsentimental. Both Joseph Cotton and Joan Fontaine are so very convincing as the lovers. On visits to Italy my wife and I have visited most of the films location. When there I just cant stop myself from singing September Song.

In "September affair ",the real star is Italy :we are taken to a guided tour of Pompey (it was made before Rossellini 's "viaggio in Italia " starring Bergman and Sanders) , of Capri ,of Florence (so there are two David :Cotten's and Michelangelo's); what a pity it was not filmed in color :it would have been a feast for the eye,mainly the first part.

As for the story itself,it 's part soap opera ,part valid drama ; Dieterle is here on Douglas Sirk 's territory but less efficient than him in melos .The excellent cast is the main asset of a rather derivative screenplay , using hackneyed tricks (the plane crash) .Cotten is true to himself ,as good as a romantic man subject to the middle-age lust as he was the terrific wicked uncle in " shadow of a doubt" or the unfortunate deceived husband in "beyond the forest " ; Fontaine has always been the dainty heroine ,frail and coy ,but who hides a genuine strength under her angel face ("Rebecca" "suspicion" "letter from an unknown woman") ;and the French audience will be thrilled about Françoise Rosay's presence , an actress who played with the best French directors (Feyder ,Carné,Duvivier) and who played opposite both sisters (Joan in this movie, Olivia in "that lady") ;so did Cotten (see "hush hush sweet Charlotte ")

The title is well-chosen ;September is the end of Summer and indicates a new phase in someone's life ;Sinatra had an album called " September of my years" .Music plays a prominent part from Italian bel canto to American songs to classic music grand finale ;it recalls sometimes Borzage's "I've always loved you" (1946)