Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?
Summertime asks that question of Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn) an American woman on an extended summer vacation in Europe. In a series of watercolors the opening credits depict Jane traveling to London and Paris and, as the credits end, we pick her up on the Orient Express, bound for Venice. As she travels, she records everything with a home movie camera. But the camera also acts as a shield, keeping the world at a distance. In her hotel she is asked by the owner why she travels alone and she replies that she likes it that way, "she is the independent type." But soon we see she really does not wish to be alone as she presses the other guests to stay with her for a drink, but they all have engagements and soon she is left by herself.
Every where she looks she sees couples. Venice, and Italy, are places of romance. She has already expressed a hidden desire that hopefully something magical will happen, yet when the opportunity presents itself in the Piazza San Marco, she is to afraid to chance anything and she quickly scurries away.
That opportunity is the attention of Renato de Rossi (Rozzano Brazzi) a local merchant. Their paths cross again the next day and the next evening and soon he is making his affection for her known. She is soon swept off her feet in a whirlwind romance. But when she learns Renato is married she must choose between what she desires and what she believes to be the "correct" thing to do. During the film she buys a gardenia from a flower lady. She explains that she always wanted one, it was the flower she wanted to wear to her first dance, but her date couldn't afford it. Renato tells her that if you wait long enough eventually you can have the things you want. But later the gardenia accidentally drops into a canal and floats away, because sometimes you lose the things you want most.
The film is not just about the love affair between two people, it is also about a love affair with the city of Venice. David Lean captures the very essence of the city on film, including it's many moods and personality. He shows how easily it could be to lose yourself in this magical place.
The film has some abrupt changes in tone and most of that can be attributed to edits required to meet production codes at the time. The film was also found "morally objectionable in part" by the National Catholic Legion of Decency. By today's standards the film is old fashioned in it's depiction of romance.
The film has a poetic quality about it and Katherine Hepburn is superb as a woman "who is laughing on the outside, but crying on the inside." It made me want to go to Venice!
At the Movie House rating ***1/2 stars.
1 comment:
I've never heard of this film, and certainly didn't know that it was directed by Lean!
Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
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