Lumière sur la piazza

Olivia de Havilland is a worried mother travelling through scenic Italian locations with daughter Yvette Mimieux, who is mentally retarded. When a young Italian starts courting her daughter and showing up in the most unlikely places, de Havilland's predicament becomes apparent. Should she tell the truth or let her daughter marry the rather simple-minded Italian boy? The situation was better described in the novella by Elizabeth Spencer, but the Epstein brothers have given the screenplay some grace and humor--and de Havilland is superb as the doting mother. Rosanno Brazzi adds his brand of charm to the boy's father and there is a light touch of romance between him and de Havilland. George Hamilton is surprisingly convincing as the smitten Italian youth, Yvette Mimieux does well enough as the girl and Barry Sullivan does what he can with the thankless role of her stubborn father who would rather see her placed in an institution. All of it is nicely photographed in Italian locales and in wide-screen technicolor (see the letterbox version if you can). This unappreciated film is a minor gem--poignant, touching and humorous.

Caught this one on Turner Classic, and for the longest time was stuck in a battle of the wills - turn it off and walk away, or allow inertia to force me to be on the couch through the whole thing. After all, I have better things to do with my time than watch George Hamilton attempt to play a young Italian lover. Inertia chalked up an embarrassing victory.

Inertia had help. This movie grew on me, because it danced the Hollywood formula for romance in front of me and then backed away from the pat and added a layer of depth to the situation. The story, in brief is as follows: DeHavilland and Mimieux are the mother and daughter from a monied American family (shares in a tobacco company) on an extended vacation in Italy. There is something wrong with the daughter. With a daughter who looks like Yvette Mimieux it is not long before a young Florentine, Hamilton, sees her and is smitten, and if you aren't familiar with who Yvette Mimieux is, suffice it to say that she was one of the most gorgeous and kittenish actresses of the early 1960's, all flaxen blonde hair, blue doe eyes and curves. To say her Clara character is a bit simple and sweet is an understatement. With his broken English, Hamilton's character does not detect anything is wrong and pursues the romance anyway, getting the concierge to tip him off as to where the mother and daughter will be going that day and just happening to show up uninvited, to Mimieux's delight and Dehavilland's growing consternation. The mother is conflicted - the boy wants to marry her daughter, but she can't let him (and his family) take her without knowing the truth.

This film is carried by DeHavilland's complex and powerful performance as a woman who has buried her hopes for her child only to see them being struck alight very much against her will. And in spite of numerous opportunities to do so, Epstein's script manages to hold off surrender to bathos, providing an interesting ending that left me surprised.

Not to say that this film had everything going for it. Casting George Hamilton as a young Italian can best be described as adventurous. Mimieux's Clara really does grow in Italy, but anyone familiar with her wide-eyed acting will know that she was an unlikely candidate to ever effectively portray a rocket scientist. Their pairing as the lovers had to have been concocted by the studio marketing department. Since the charisma supply on the lovers is not exactly overflowing the dike, DeHavilland's performance becomes even more important.

Some wonderful vistas are rendered of Florence, one of the world's loveliest cities. Coupled with DeHavilland's slow and patient explanations to the befuddled Mimieux of what they are looking at and how it is important, the film also provides a short travelogue of Florence that even an Englishman could follow.

I watched this one "by accident" (by discovery) and was very moved by the film. The wonderful performances by Olivia and Rossano definitely elevate it, and the youngsters were sympathetic. I was, frankly, surprised by Hamilton's controlled and sensitive performance as Fabrizzio.

This movie deserves better treatment from the former reviewer. While definitely a travelogue and clearly a period piece, it still has something timeless to say about happiness and the human condition; that the inability to love and be loved may be the biggest disability of all.

I found this move, seen on Turner Classic Movies, to be a very touching love story. I particularly liked the Olivia deHavilland as Meg Johnson, the mother of a beautiful young woman, named Clara with a slight mental impairment, played by Yvette Mimieux.

On a trip to Italy with her mother, Clara is eyed by the young men she passes in the piazzas of Florence and Rome. Before long, she is pursued by Fabrizio Naccareli, a young Florentine, played by George Hamilton, who seems to have fallen in love with her at first sight. He is very enthusiastic and playful, a love match for Clara. At the same time, Fabrizio's father, Rosanno Brazzi, who is married, strikes up a friendship with Meg.

It was apparent that while she wants the best for her daughter, Meg treats her disability as a social stigma. This seems to be in contrast with Fabrizio's Italian family, who have a more natural approach to Fabrizio, who is also somewhat immature, while totally charming.

Some of the movie is very dated; for example, the way Olivia deHavilland lights a cigarette every time she encounters a moment of stress. The smoking theme becomes more pronounced with people offering each other cigarettes, not to mention Clara's father's high paying job in the tobacco industry. There is a bit of a running joke linking the Johnsons with actor Van Johnson, whose name is less familiar to a 21st century audience than it was in 1962. However, these telltale signs that date the movie also seem to be part of its appeal.

In other respects, the movie is ahead of its time and seems to tell viewers to allow love to flower and grow. Meg found a change of heart on the trip. While reluctant to let go of her free-spirited daughter, she couldn't deny the love that Fabrizio and Clara shared. The movie throws a few twists in how the story plays out. As always, it is a credit that TCM brings movies out of the dusty corners of the past. They tell us something about the time while giving us unexpected entertainment.

As she got older Olivia DeHavilland picked and chose her roles a lot more carefully. An absence of three years such as the one she had before accepting Light In The Piazza was not unusual for her. I think it was in part a reaction to her days at Warner Brothers where she was put into a whole lot films she didn't like.

At the time she made Light In The Piazza Olivia was living in France with her then husband Pierre Galante and raising their children. So a location shoot in Rome and Florence was no big move. Rome saw its share of films extolling the beauties of the Eternal City. But in this one the Renaissance beauty of Florence got its share of cinema immortality. The color cinematography of Light In The Piazza was its greatest asset.

Olivia is on a mother/daughter holiday in Florence with Yvette Mimieux who when she was 10 was kicked in the head by a horse and has stayed at that age emotionally. But her physical development wasn't arrested any and she gets the attention of young Florentine George Hamilton. There's a whole lot of concern from both families because Hamilton is the same way.

In addition to her daughter's romance, Olivia gets courted by Rossano Brazzi who is Hamilton's father. Some of the plot of A Summer Place is borrowed here as we glimpse into their married lives, Brazzi with the eternally crying Nancy Nevinson and DeHavilland with stuffed shirt Barry Sullivan who wants to institutionalize Mimieux because she's becoming an inconvenience.

Light In The Piazza got an Oscar nomination for Best Sound. It was produced at MGM by Arthur Freed who was now out of the musicals business. Still this film has some of the decorative gloss that an MGM Freed musical you would expect to have. Yvette Mimieux may have given her best screen performance here. I think you'll agree.