ITALIAN RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE MOVIES

Of Italian Renaissance Interest

• The Prince of Foxes. 1949. Orson Welles plays Cesare Borgia, Tyrone Power is a painter tricked into serving him. (They show his paintings; rather like Tuscan 15th century so you see there is a reason to take art history courses) Set in and around Siena, with some amazing locations. Recently made available on DVD.
• Othello 1952. Directed by and starring Orson Welles. Filmed on location all over Morroco and Italy; contains striking images of Venice.
• The Agony and the Ecstasy 1965. Overblown, too long--but often funny (intentionally and less so) costume epic about Michelangelo, Pope Julius II and the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. A large part of their dialogue actually comes from historical sources--even the fights. With Charlton Heston and Rex Harrison.
• Romeo and Juliet 1968. Filmed with real teenagers in the title roles, and shot in small towns such as Gubbio, Pienza, and Tuscania--today's Verona is far too built up and populous. Highly praised, although much of the text was cut in recognition of the limited speaking skills of the young leads.
• Don Giovanni Joseph Losey's 1979 version of Mozart's opera is set in the Veneto and Venice, with extraordinary use of Palladian villas as his stage sets. Through the magic of cinema the buildings and their locations have been manipulated, so it really becomes a contest of KNOW YOUR PALLADIAN VILLAS. For example, the Villa Rotonda, where Don Giovanni lives, is not situated in the middle of a lake or river or whatever that body of water is supposed to be. However, the movie is enormous fun and Raimondi, who supposedly has sung the role of DG over 800 times is excellent as the evil Don who in the end gets just what he deserves (See photo on link above).
• Room with a View 1986. It's Florence and, in the second half, the English countryside. But it's Italy mythologized again and it's by James Ivory. A beautifully done exact transcription into film of the book by E.M. Forster. The Florence city scenes were shot for the most part in and around the Piazza Signoria in the oldest parts of the city. The pensione where the characters stay is/was a real hotel; it was blown up in the May 1993 Uffizi bombing.
• Shakespeare in Love Why the play is not Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter. Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, 1998. [OK--it's not set in Italy--BUT Shakespeare was a famous fan of Italia!]
• Dangerous Beauty 16th-century Venice: gondola rides, palaces, lots of semi-sheer linen.

Movies of Italian Baroque Interest

ROMAN HOLIDAY

Perhaps the best of the portraits of Rome and Italy as the Paradise of Foreigners (see also below, The Fifties Version. Cheerfully unreal: AH is a visiting Princess, GP a slimy newspaper reporter who turns out to have a conscience after all. The locations are wonderful: AH lives in a palatial building that is the Palazzo Barberini on the exterior and (mostly) the Palazzo Colonna on the interior. The Palazzo Barberini was built in part by Gianlorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini and is visitable today as the National Gallery of Art. The Palazzo Colonna is most famous as a showplace of the family's collection of paintings and Venetian glass chandeliers and mirrors. Unseen in the movie is the famous staircase that still contains the cannonball that landed there during the 1848 Siege of Rome. It's open only on Saturday mornings, but is well worth a visit. The rest of the locations in the movie are either identified for you or are obvious.

Also, many of the exterior scenes were shot with a hand-held camera following AH and GP through the city. Most notable is the sequence near the beginning showing AH wandering through the outdoor market and the Spanish Steps.

ARTEMISIA

• Lurid movie of 1997 sort of about Artemisia Gentileschi, a Roman painter whose style shows influence both from her successful father and Caravaggio. The link above is to the sort of English translation of the original German promotional site.

  The movie provoked a lot of controversy when it was first released, for the director/writer played fast and loose with the historical facts about AG's life. There's a Web site by someone you know on Artemisia Gentileschi in the Movies that contains the response by Mary Garrard and Gloria Steinem, along with links to sites about the movie and about AG.

• Caravaggio 1986. The life of the painter reimagined by Derek Jarman. Doesn't seem to be available for purchase and it's not going to be shown on Turner Classics.

• Casanova 2005. Who cares, it's set in Venice...

Movies Set in Italy

The Fifties Verson: Popular movies made in the Fifties set in Italy tended to show lots of major monuments, which is often the only element that makes them bearable today. Even good movies like The Barefoot Contessa and Summertime (see below) contain some ethnic stereotyping that could most charitably be called dated. Still, the photography is often beautiful and you get to see what Italy looked like before smog and mass tourism. Try: Three Coins in the Fountain, 1954; Come September, 1961; It Started in Naples, 1960; Gidget goes to Rome, 1963; The Light in the Piazza, 1962 (a bit more serious than these others); Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, 1968; more recently, there is the slightly more adult Only You of 1994. More interesting movies are:

• BOBBY DEERFIELD 1977. With Al Pacino and Marthe Keller. Shot mostly in Florence, with lots of manipulated locations, but it's still Florence. AP is a race car driver who's in a deep funk until he meets MK, who has more problems than he does but at least is not a depressive. This is the sort of movie that people either love or hate; it's supposed to be one of AP's favorites.

• OBSESSION 1976. Directed by Brian De Palma and set mostly in Florence. Bernard Herrmann's last film score. Be careful about reading the reviews at the link; some spoilers.
  
• SUMMERTIME 1955. Directed by David Lean (as in Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai) and starring Katherine Hepburn. The entire film is set in Venice, where KH is vacationing. Famous for its lavish Technicolor, the movie was recently restored. See what Venice was like in the 50s, before 60 Minutes began making its clucking reports about the crowds, dirt, and dishonesty of the natives.

  One of the featured actresses here is Isa Miranda, who had been a big star in Italian movies of the 30s and 40s. By the time DL saw her, she had fallen on hard times, and looked it. She was so happy to have been given a role in this film that she immediately (and without DL's knowledge) undertook a total physical rejuvenation program: she lost weight, got her hair dyed and redone, bought new clothes. When she reported to work DL was livid; he'd hired the previous IM, not this new spruced-up version. He found himself unable to work with her, and told KH to direct their scenes together, which she did.

Do you have suggestions for other titles? Let me know: acd@efn.org
Prof. Adrienne DeAngelis