Nov

The Light of Venice

Guarding a Venice Flower Shop

Destination: Venice

Movie: Summertime (1955), Director David Lean

Kate Hepburn chewed the scenery. Rossano Brazzi looked soulful. The Kid stole the show. Venice is the star.

Summertime is one of those movies that makes you want to travel–but definitely turn off your brain. The saving grace of the movie is Venice, the real star of the picture–not Katherine Hepburn or Rossano Brazzi–although they are both scenic, also. Venice (and some wonderful cinematography) saves the day in all its color and light. Light reflects on the water, gleams off murals, brings bridges into full relief. You may remember Three Coins in a Fountain, filmed around the same time. I raved about the Italian scenery in that movie, but the filming does not hold a candle to Summertime. As in Three Coins, a woman takes a chance on a love affair that breaks the mid-fifties norm.

Not only is the plot lame, but this is the first movie I ever saw with Katherine Hepburn where I disliked her acting. (The Academy disagreed. She was nominated. But did not win.) Such emoting, such moping around telegraphing her feelings. Such a high-class New England accent for a supposed secretary from Akron Ohio, Jane Hudson. “Oh dear”–or should that be “Oh, deah”–suffice it to say that Venice played her role SO much better than Kate played hers.

The script is based on a romantic comedy–a bit of fluff that played on Broadway, Time of the Cuckoo. Trivia: In Britain the title of the movie was Summer Madness, which is certainly a more appropriate title. I’m still thinking of the comparison to another scenically beautiful movie set in a place you want to travel to, the similarly named, Summer Lovers, probably the worst movie I ever saw in the most beautiful place, Santorini.

Briefly,Jane Hudson has saved up money as a secretary to take the trip of a lifetime, and she carries her home movie camera with her to record it. She is, in the parlance of the day, a spinster. She is longing for love–because this was before Gloria Steinham told women that “a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” So poor Kate mopes around the piazza of her pensione, sighs over couples holding hands, and sinks into gloom over a cappuchino at Florian’s on Piazza St. Mark. She changes clothes before going to St. Marks. She changes clothes every five minutes, and my feet simply ached at the thought of all those high heels.

People today dress more casually than the white-gloved heroine of Summertime, at Cafe Florian, St. Mark's Square, Venice

There she meets Rossano Brazzi after previous encounters with the cliché gauche American couple and the sophisticated Italian woman who runs the pensione. Ah, yes, she also meets the cutest cast member, the street urchin on the make who saves her bacon several times. At first she flees from Brazzi and her feelings. When she finally succumbs to his “You’re in Italy, live a little” seduction, they cross a bridge (get it?) to his apartment and fireworks explode over Venice. (get it?) I’m not making this up.

Meanwhile, the sophisticated landlady beds the married artist, played by Darren McGavin. The other American couple go sightseeing and he returns to report that the museum had art “all done by hand.” (Not a bad line!)

Spoiler Alert: After the fireworks, Hepburn’s character sobers up and decides to leave, despite Rossano Brazzi, the married cad, begging her to stay. The girl from Akron, Ohio, demonstrated real gumption in embarking on this affair, but even more in saying goodbye to the delicious leading man.

I loved following the characters as they strolled around Venice. I’m almost sure this well was in a scene with the young boy.

Venetian Plaza, with kids sitting around a well.

Of course St. Marks and bridges over small canals show up numerous times.

St. Mark's Square

Venice Shopping Street

You may want to make Venice travel plans immediately, but, alas, you cannot stay in the Pensione Fiorini, where our heroine and the American couples stayed. According to the web site A Lover of Venice, the pensione is a Hollywood creation. The writer has tracked down many scenes in the movie, which makes for a fascinating read. He/she says that the front door of the pensione in the movie opens to Rio dei Bareteri in San Maro in the heart of Merceria. However, “the balcony of Miss Hudson’s room is way up on Rio de la Salute in Dorsoduro, overlooking the churches of La Salute and San Georgio Maggiore and the captivating terrace on the Grand Canal was in fact a set built in Campo San Vio, also in the siestre of Dorsoduro.

Oh, well, there are still plenty of charming pensiones in Venice, even if they don’t have terraces on the Grand Canal. Take a look at Pensione Accademia, for instance. I tried to get in there but they were fully booked a couple of months in advance. One booking agent on line claims it is the locale of the movie’s pensione. Ha!

I have linked movie titles to Amazon DVDs in case you’d like to acquire one. When you buy anything at all after following that link (Gift shopping yet?) I get a few cents to help pay the Library bills. All photos here are my property. Please do not use without permission. Thank you.

I hope that you have enjoyed our visit to Venice this week. We have now looked at Venice in the shadows and Venice in the light. Which seems most real to you?