Light in the Piazza
Directed by Guy Green
Written by Julius J. Epstein, story by Elizabeth Spencer
1962/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Amazon Instant
Meg Johnson: Nobody with a dream should come to Italy. No matter how dead and buried you think it is, in Italy, it will rise and walk again.
The scenery of Florence and the appeal of Olivia De Havilland rescue a most improbable tale.
Meg Johnson (De Havilland) and her 26-year-old daughter Clara (Yvette Mimeux) are on an extended holiday in Florence. Husband and father Noel (Barry Sullivan) remains in America making millions. Meg is very protective of Clara who has suffered brain damage. It is the kind of movie disease that preserves the sufferer’s beauty, speech and motor function. We are told Clara’s mentality is that of a 10 year old, though she also becomes fluent in Italian in nothing flat. Any way, the handsome and cultivated Fabrizio (George Hamilton) soon falls for Clara in a big way.
Clara is soon head-over-heels for Fabrizio and his wealthy family approves of her whole-heartedly. Meg is left with a dilemma. She tries to solve her problem by leaving Florence and calling her husband on an emergency basis to Rome. But Noel’s solution to the whole situation is to put Clara in an institution and there is no way Meg will agree to that. What to do? With Rosanno Brazzi as Fabrizio’s father.
Trailer
