I've watched this movie on cable TV and I confess I loved it
and that's not just because of an incredibly beautiful 23 year old Charlotte Rampling!
I guess it's the unhurried way in which the movie conjures up nostalgia and the transient nature of youth. That's a theme that's made very explicit during the tour of the Uffizzi when the guide quotes lines from a poem by Lorenzo the Magnificent. The film is set during a summer holiday, but it seemed to be filmed "off season" bystanders wear jackets and long-sleeves, the piazzas and especially the beaches seem strangely empty. There's this feeling of "end of summer", of an idyll petering away
Ultimately, it's a "coming of age" tale, especially for the hapless Taylor. It's difficult not to love the fellow Generous in spirit, noble in intent, gracious in manner but his faults are also his own. He refuses to commit, refuses to decide what he wants. It's made clear that he is over protected by his parents (who are paying for the trip). This makes him non-assertive but ultimately complacent. Rather like a child, he wants it all the love of a woman, the bond of friendship, and he thinks that he can keep it all by not stirring the waters he thinks that things will not change, but they do anyway, as they always do, for life is change maybe growth.
Ultimately, poor Taylor is left holding a "handful of flies" (an Italian expression). He leaves, with only a hint of bitterness, for he is not a bitter fellow, but he is (I believe) wiser.
I shudder to think what would result if this movie were remade today. I would envisage plenty of nudity, plenty of sex and redundant sub-plots involving criminal enterprise and action sequences. None of these attributes would be necessarily bad, but the result would certainly not approach the mood of the sensitive and insightful original.
For trivia lovers, the quote from Lorenzo the Magnificent's Song of Bacchus translates as:
How beautiful is youth That runs away nonetheless Let he that would be happy, be so: There is no certainty of tomorrow.
It's so much better in the original.
Finally, I have to ask Taylor, oh Taylor, how could you refuse Marty at that bedroom door?
I guess it's the unhurried way in which the movie conjures up nostalgia and the transient nature of youth. That's a theme that's made very explicit during the tour of the Uffizzi when the guide quotes lines from a poem by Lorenzo the Magnificent. The film is set during a summer holiday, but it seemed to be filmed "off season" bystanders wear jackets and long-sleeves, the piazzas and especially the beaches seem strangely empty. There's this feeling of "end of summer", of an idyll petering away
Ultimately, it's a "coming of age" tale, especially for the hapless Taylor. It's difficult not to love the fellow Generous in spirit, noble in intent, gracious in manner but his faults are also his own. He refuses to commit, refuses to decide what he wants. It's made clear that he is over protected by his parents (who are paying for the trip). This makes him non-assertive but ultimately complacent. Rather like a child, he wants it all the love of a woman, the bond of friendship, and he thinks that he can keep it all by not stirring the waters he thinks that things will not change, but they do anyway, as they always do, for life is change maybe growth.
Ultimately, poor Taylor is left holding a "handful of flies" (an Italian expression). He leaves, with only a hint of bitterness, for he is not a bitter fellow, but he is (I believe) wiser.
I shudder to think what would result if this movie were remade today. I would envisage plenty of nudity, plenty of sex and redundant sub-plots involving criminal enterprise and action sequences. None of these attributes would be necessarily bad, but the result would certainly not approach the mood of the sensitive and insightful original.
For trivia lovers, the quote from Lorenzo the Magnificent's Song of Bacchus translates as:
How beautiful is youth That runs away nonetheless Let he that would be happy, be so: There is no certainty of tomorrow.
It's so much better in the original.
Finally, I have to ask Taylor, oh Taylor, how could you refuse Marty at that bedroom door?