Summertime

Katharine Hepburn shines as an American spinster vacationing in Rome, where she quickly falls for the very suave, very married Rossano Brazzi. Brazzi, who was typecast early on in Hollywood (nearly always portraying the foreign cad with the seductive come-on), is ostensibly an ill-suited match for nervous, chatty Kate, but they manage to pull off the hand-me-down plot contrivance--first love dashed by fate. Director and co-writer David Lean's cinematic sweep tends to dwarf the story, which originated as a far more intimate play (Arthur Laurents' "The Time of the Cuckoo"). Lengthy travelogue with a built-in tearjerker-trap does showcase nearly all of Hepburn's strengths as an actress; she is sometimes annoying, yet wistful, romantic, dreamy-eyed. Fabulously photographed by the peerless Jack Hildyard, and lovely entertainment for wallowers of sudsy romance stories. *** from ****

Ms. Hepburn portrayed the many stages of love so convincingly that it is difficult to remember it's just a movie. One of the most appealing aspects of this film is that both she and her co-star are in their middle years. Their ability to show the blossom of new love and all the "ubbly, bubbly" feelings/emotions that go along with it are excellent examples of great acting. These days, Hollywood seems to believe that only teen or pre-teen love stories have any box-office appeal. For the most part, the acting is secondary to the amount of skin they reveal throughout the flick. If you haven't seen this movie in the past 10 years, it's definitely a film to check-out again.

I've seen this movie quite a few times on televison, but during the 2003 60th Venice Film Festival I had the opportunity to see it on a big, big screen in a brand new copy. Well, miss Hepburn's acting is breath taking, one of the few times she incarnates a woman so vulnerable, and she does it to perfection. And the tone and mood of the entire pic, while a little bit too "touristic", are absolutely sweet and romantic. I live in Venice, and can surely say that seeing what's on screen, I'm sure David Lean did fall in love with this city Only one minor (really minor) flair: some scenes were filmed in winter, not in summer, since the Moors of San Marco Square's clock only appear once a year, at Christmas time (and seeing the movie on a big screen, it was possible to notice that while the Moors were striking the hours, people on the back ground, although out of focus, were wearing coats and furs)..