While
most authors dream of literary success followed by cinematic success, most film
producers attempt to exploit the public awareness that a best seller creates
along with its built-in audience. The right combination of a blockbuster book
with a profitable counterpart in film represents a publicist’s dream, a
marriage made perhaps not in heaven, but in the conference room of some
production company. The locus classicus of such a match must surely be Gone With
the Wind, both one of the most popular novels and one of the most popular
motion pictures in American history.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The great international commercial
success of Frances Mayes’s book, Under
the Tuscan Sun, naturally therefore explains the appearance of the new
movie of the same title. Because of the obvious and important differences
between the two media, filmmakers notoriously (and surprisingly, sometimes even
brilliantly) often make drastic changes in the text during its translation from
book to motion picture. The process of transformation in Under the Tuscan Sun, however, suggests that the writer-director,
Audrey Wells, simply gave up on anything like accuracy and decided to use the
text as pretext, and make quite another version of the material.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The screenplay adds to the book’s
account of purchasing and renovating a villa in Tuscany a number of other
characters, some invented romantic subplots, and a quantity of aphoristic
advice of a truly compelling banality. Diane Lane plays the protagonist,
Frances Mayes, who now and then narrates her story of a shocking divorce that
leaves her lonely and devastated, which leads to the kind gift, from a lesbian
couple, of a ticket for a tour of Tuscany, and her impulsive decision while on
the trip to buy a decrepit villa near the village of Cortona.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย That primary sequence of events
probably most closely resembles the movement of the book, turning the movie
into something like Mr. Blandings Builds
His Dream House or The Money Pit.
It is a comical account of the difficulties of transforming an ancient
structure into a modern, livable domicile, with all the usual problems of
construction complicated by linguistic and cultural differences.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
writer-director thickens all that matter with the story of Frances’ search for
love, which for a while overwhelms the primary plot. As decades of fiction and
film (and even experience) inform us, attractive American women with money in
Italy immediately attract the attention of Italian men.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย On
the other hand, rich American women past their first youth visiting Italy
immediately look for an Italian lover. Although Frances resists the advances of
a number of men, she falls for a handsome, charming Italian named Marcello
(Raoul Bova), who sweeps her off her feet, takes her to bed, and breaks her
heart.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Other plots and people accumulate,
some apparently serving to pad out the unpromising material of the original
text. A young Polish worker on the construction crew falls in love with an
Italian girl. The pregnant member of the lesbian couple turns up, planning to
stay with Frances and give birth in Italy. A generally irrelevant character, a
striking woman named Katherine (Lindsay Duncan), pops up now and then to
reminisce about her friendship with Federico Fellini and quote several of his
apothegms. In the most ridiculous scene of the movie she wades drunkenly in the
town fountain replicating, for no particular reason, a famous moment in La Dolce Vita.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Italy
occupies a special and significant place in the literary (and later, cinematic)
imagination of several countries, including of course our own. Its treatment in
American writing, at least since the early 19th century, remains the greatest
influence on the contemporary imagination. American writers, like Frances Mayes
in the movie, dwell not only on its manifold layers of the past, its rich
history of art and architecture, its landscape and climate, but also on the
mysteries of Catholicism, and especially on the seductive appeal of the people,
which almost always come to mean seduction itself.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The Italian, for generations of
visitors from colder climes and sterner cultures —Germans, Britons, Americans
— is a highly sexual creature who tempts and sometimes corrupts the tourist
from another land, a process that forms the basis of innumerable books and
films. No wonder Frances Mayes finds that falling in love with Italy entails
actually falling in love.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Although the actors all behave with
competence and considerable charm, the real star of the picture, of course, is
Italy itself. The Tuscan landscape, dotted with farms, vineyards, and olive
groves, the town of Cortina, the few moments in Florence and Rome, the village
of Positano perched above the Mediterranean on the Amalfi coast all create an
entirely entrancing variety of images perfectly suited for the inspired
travelogue that constitutes the heart of the movie.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย That often breathtaking visual
splendor, coupled with an occasional sense of the mixture of modern life with
the strata of history, outweighs much of the silliness and contrivance of Under the Tuscan Sun.
Under the
Tuscan Sun, starring Diane
Lane, Vincent Riotta, Raoul Bova, Roberto Nobile, Lindsay Duncan, Sandra Oh,
Pawel Szajda, Giulia Steigerwalt, Evelina Gori, Mario Moncelli, David
Sutcliffe, Jack Kehler, Kristoffer Winters; based on the book by Frances Mayes;
screen story and screenplay by Audrey Wells; directed by Audrey Wells. Cinemark
Tinseltown, Culver Ridge Regal, Eastview 13, Henrietta 18, Pittsford Plaza
Cinema
You
can hear George and his movie reviews on WXXI-FM 91.5 Fridays at 7:20 a.m.,
rerun on Saturdays at 8:50 a.m.
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2003.
