Le visage du plaisir

In general, it seems that most big name actresses are loathe to admit that time has caught up with them. Too often, as they get older, the become vain about their age and often portray women MUCH younger than they really are. However, in the case of "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone", Vivian Leigh does something rather brave--she plays a woman who is about 50 (just like Leigh was at the time) and who can no longer play these young woman parts. And I can really respect her for playing a character who hits close to home, so to speak.

When the film begins, Karen Stone (Leigh) is starring in a play. The problem is that her character is just too young for this aging actress to play. Not surprisingly, the audience members think the same and instead of continuing, she decides to quit and take her husband to Italy. He's been ill and this is the perfect excuse to allow her to gracefully pull out of the play. However, on the flight to Rome, he has a heart attack and the credits begin. Soon you learn that he died on the flight and Karen is in this strange city...alone and grieving for her husband.

Because Mrs. Stone is so vulnerable, a horrid old lady has been grooming her--grooming her to be taken by a handsome young gigolo, Paulo (Warren Beatty). Slowly, Paolo insinuates herself into Karen's life and after a while, they become lovers. However, some possible problems occur--Paolo MAY be falling for her for real and Karen soon learns that Paolo has taken advantage of other women and is planning on doing this to her as well. Oddly, however, the relationship continues--even though his prey knows what she's getting into with him.

As I watched this movie, I kept wondering why they cast the characters like they did. Although Beatty did a good job as an Italian, why not just get a handsome young Italian actor?! Also, while Leigh was very good, why have her play an American actress--why not change the story to make her a Brit? I just cannot understand the producer's thinking in both these cases.

So is the movie any good? Well, yes. But you also have to have a very high tolerance for seeing a woman in pain and not mind how unrelentingly grim the story is. This isn't surprising, since it's a story from Tennessee Williams.

The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone is based on a novella by Tennessee Williams and I'm sure it was Tennessee who saw to it that Vivien Leigh was cast in the title role. After all Vivien had won an Oscar for playing that other Tennessee Williams sex starved female, Blanche Dubois.

But Karen Stone is a woman very much like Vivien Leigh was in real life. Karen is an actress who's refused to grow old gracefully, when we meet her she's just been trashed by the London critics for a very bad portrayal of Rosamund in As You Like It. She's 50 trying to play a young girl in her teens. Better she should have played Queen Gertrude in a revival of Hamlet.

Anyway she and her husband decide to take a long holiday in Rome, but as the plane is landing her husband has a heart attack and dies. He's left her well fixed and after a suitable period of mourning Mrs. Stone is ready for a little action in her life.

This is Tennessee Williams so we're talking sex here. Vivien maybe too old to play Rosalind, but she's not too old to enjoy what Rosalind enjoys. And Lotte Lenya who makes a living procuring young men for her clients is willing to supply.

Warren Beatty is what Vivien thinks she wants. Warren is the only real weakness in The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone. He does pout an awful lot in the role and his accent is phony.

But Vivien who was going through mid life crisis for decades before she died in 1967 was perfect casting. I'm not sure how much of it is acting and how much she's just playing herself. The woman had a lot of emotional and physical problems and as her husband Laurence Olivier frankly admitted, she was a nymphomaniac in real life.

Lotte Lenya got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as the Countess. However this was the year of West Side Story and Rita Moreno beat her in that category.

This was one of the frankest discussions about sex ever put on film up to that time. In fact though no gay sex is discussed, right at the beginning you see a couple of men meeting for a tryst and you can spot a few obviously gay couples strolling throughout Rome. The Code was definitely coming down.

One of the big pluses The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone has is that it was shot completely in The Eternal City. The movie industry loved Rome at that time with Roman Holiday, Three Coins In The Fountain, The Seven Hills Of Rome and now The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone all showing Rome to its best advantage. The other three films were a lot more upbeat than this one was.

Stage director Jose Quintero did a great job with his cast in his one and only big screen production. The Roman Spring Of Mrs. Stone was done with Helen Mirren in Vivien Leigh's part several years ago. You might want to see both to compare.

When her wealthy, older husband dies, an aging actress (Vivien Leigh) decides to retire and move to Rome. For some strange reason, she finds herself at a loss. She seems to have no interests - no hobbies. She becomes "fixated" on having sex with young men.

She is introduced to a "candidate" (Warren Beatty) by a procurer, Lotte Lenya. But Mrs. Stone (Vivien Leigh) is somewhat reluctant to begin a "liasion".

Eventually, she succumbes to his obvious charms. But their relationship is skin-deep - she provides the money, he provides the sex. Meanwhile, a filthy street urchin (Jeremy Spenser) has been following her. He is hoping to capture her attentions. "What do you want?", she cries out.

Eventually, Mrs. Stone loses her "boy-toy" - he becomes attracted to a much younger woman. And Mrs. Stone falls into the arms of the filthy street urchin. The film, which has many fine and memorable moments, is dominated - and weakened - by the parched performamce of Vivien Leigh, who seems to be struggling for air.

When she falls into the arms of Jeremy Spenser, you just know that the end is not far off. The film is basically a hard-hitting testimony to the inescapable fact that love for sale is not an beneficial enterprise for anyone - the buyer or the seller

Lotte Lenya's formidable, terrifying performance captures the forbidding soul of this movie.

Read together the biographies of Tennessee Williams and Vivien Leigh, and you'll know why the depressing aspects of this movie are so realistic!! Vivien was, at the time the movie was made, going through her painful divorce from Laurence Olivier. In the middle of making the film, she had dinner with her beloved Olivier and Joan Plowright, at which time he told her that he was marrying Joan. Vivien had electro-shock treatments right after wrapping this movie. That desolate, soul-searing sadness in her eyes isn't acting!

Tennessee Williams features gigolos, procurers and prostitutes in many of his plays and this was no exception, although the 'action' is disguised by the high-faluting manners of the Countessa (the madam, who lives off the earnings of her 'boys'). You wonder how much Tennessee may have fashioned the play on Miss Leigh's life, as 'Mrs. Stone' is an actress past her prime, whose husband has just absented himself from her life (and his, as well). Williams exquisitely portrays the way we use one another for our own advantage, and Beatty (with a crummy Italian accent) does a great job of 'playing' the self-involved, narcissistic, money hungry Lothario. Once he hooks her, he delights in sadistically attacking her for her 'weakness' in loving him. Ever been there? At that time in his life, Beatty was playing a similar but more innocent role with almost every woman in Hollywood. He has matured well.

The writing was excellent, the scenery in Rome magnificent, but you will be so depressed after seeing this excellent movie that I suggest you also check out 'Bulworth' as a double feature to follow with. Beatty on two sides of his career is worth comparing: drama and comedy, villain and hero. I believe you'll have to say that Warren Beatty is an actor as well as a movie star.

Even though Vivien Leigh did not care for Beatty's arrogance while making this movie, she was able to turn the horror of her personal life into something constructive (as did Tennessee Williams), for which we the public should always be grateful. To make art from the ashes of a marriage----destroyed by death or divorce----- is something each of us would do well to learn.

For those of you with indomitable spirits, another Tennessee Williams film to see for comparison purposes is "Summer and Smoke". The interplay between the romantic leads is more equal, but both portray the sadness from Tennessee's sister Rose's life. She was a beautiful Southern flower, intimidated by her overbearing mother and alcoholic father, who wound up having a lobotomy (as did another sad victim /child of our nation's leading family). Tennessee paid homage to her tragic life in many of his plays, and these are no exception. Intelligent, beautiful but completely impotent at withstanding the aggression of those around her, Mrs. Stone is a prime example of a 'Rose by another name'.

I have to disagree with the comments that Warren Beatty made this movie. I thought his Italian accent was poor and most of the time he sits and pouts.

Vivien Leigh made this movie for me. She related to Karen Stone because at the time she was a manic depressive and was receiving shock treatments.

This role is very similar to Blanche Dubois and Mary Treadwell.

I've read the novella by Tennessee Williams and the movie does make a very good adaptation of it.

The cinematography is beautiful and so is the costuming.