Summertime (1955)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

H.E. Bates (screenplay) &
David Lean (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 August 1955 (Japan)

Genre:

Romance | Drama

Tagline:

It Happens to Hepburn - It Happens in Venice!

Plot:

A lonely American woman unexpectedly finds romance in Venice, Italy.

Plot Keywords:

Venice Italy | Secretary | American | Camera | Train

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Katharine Hepburn	...	Jane Hudson
Rossano Brazzi	...	Renato de Rossi
Isa Miranda	...	Signora Fiorini
Darren McGavin	...	Eddie Yaeger
Mari Aldon	...	Phyl Yaeger
Jane Rose	...	Mrs. McIlhenny
MacDonald Parke	...	Mr. McIlhenny
Jeremy Spenser	...	Vito de Rossi
Gaetano Autiero	...	Mauro
Virginia Simeon	...	Giovanna

Also Known As:

Summer Madness (UK)

Runtime:

UK:99 min | USA:100 min | Argentina:102 min | West Germany:100 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Australia:PG | New Zealand:PG | UK:PG | Finland:S | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Campo San Barnaba, Venice, Veneto, Italy

Company:

London Film Productions

Trivia:

The story was also later adapted as a Broadway musical called "Do I Hear A Waltz" by Arthur Laurents with songs by Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim. The show opened at the 46th Street Theatre on March 18th, 1965 and ran for 220 performances. Laurents later revised the script and a new production was staged in 2000 at the Pasadena Playhouse in New Jersey. Recordings of both productions are available for purchase on specialist websites.

Goofs:

Continuity: The amount of wine in Di Rossi's glass when he first sees Jane - the glass is empty, then full.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Fisher King (1991)

Soundtrack:

Summertime In Venice

The Venice of "Summertime," in the Piazza San Marco, is indeed unique…

Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn), a middle-aged American school teacher, arrives in Venice, fulfilling a lifelong dream… On her first evening, she has an encounter with Mauro, an enterprising little street child, who becomes her unofficial escort… But in the evening, while seating in a crowded café, she sees a handsome man in a gray flannel suit... Her first instinctive reaction was to oppose, pay the bill, escape, and keep out of sight...

The next evening, she sits alone to take a drink in the Piazza San Marco, but with a wandering eye… As the violins begin playing 'Summertime in Venice', Jane would turn away in a heart beat to see Renato passing by… To hide her anxiousness, she inclines the chair next to her, pretending that she is expecting a company... Jane has come to Venice to find a handsome, unmarried hero of her dreams... But she is furious and resentful... She really can't understand what she is doing...

The most advantageous thing about David Lean's 'Summertime' is its sensitive portrait of the loneliness that holds back the fancy secretary, a desperately single heroine whose search for romance and adventure is prevented less by cultural differences than by her own feeling defenses...

Hepburn is a pleasant tourist with great magnetism... Rossano Brazzi is too powerful, tempting and charming as Renato, the Venetian who couldn't catch a fallen white gardenia in one of the canals of his town…