Phillim When we speak of 'tone' in cinema or literature -- this is one to study.There is a scene midway through 'Light in the Piazza' where Yvette Mimieux, as a brain-damaged glamorous girl, fits right in with the teenage smart set of Florence: she can talk hair, make-up, and movie stars with the best of them -- and is a natural star as she twirls in her chic summer outfit. This is but one great moment in the expert script by Julius J. Epstein, from the book by Elizabeth Spencer. It strikes me as a very modern film on my recent first viewing (2017).Olivia de Havilland is an affluent American vacationing in sunny Italy with her special-needs daughter, acting as companion and devoted guardian. The girl turns the head (and why not?) of a goofy, obsessive handsome boy from a wealthy Florentine family -- and a grand romance begins. But should it?-- Olivia contemplates the question for a splendidly entertaining hour and a half or so -- amid pretty people in pretty clothes in pretty locations.This is a daring film from a daring book -- and succeeds because the comedy is both broad (George Hamilton -- hilarious -- as the boy, and Yvette Mimieux as the girl share *superb* comic timing and *perfect* chemistry), and subtle (de Havilland with Rossano Brazzi as the boy's father -- both wise and vulnerable -- and *randy*). The laughs are abundant -- deep laughs -- I think because as one enjoys what for all appearances is a sunny romantic comedy, the genre is turned on its head as one is constantly reminded of the central human problem of the story: what are the ethics involved when a young adult diagnosed 'with the mind of a child' naturally desires romance and sex with a 'normal' (and sincere) young adult?I've always enjoyed Olivia d. in the company of stronger performers in the old Hollywood hurley-burley, but usually find her acting a bit on the general attitudinizing side. Here, smart director Guy Green gives Ms. d. opportunity and *time* to embody an intelligent, capable person navigating uncharted circumstances. Much of the film comprises her silent reactions -- and this old screen pro knows how to make conflicting thoughts babble and blurt behind an elegant exterior as she swings from gravitas to giddy and all the rest.Green's handling of everybody in the cast is skilled and perceptive: Hamilton especially astonishes, but Mimieux and everybody else involved are spot on.

bkoganbing As she got older Olivia DeHavilland picked and chose her roles a lot more carefully. An absence of three years such as the one she had before accepting Light In The Piazza was not unusual for her. I think it was in part a reaction to her days at Warner Brothers where she was put into a whole lot films she didn't like.At the time she made Light In The Piazza Olivia was living in France with her then husband Pierre Galante and raising their children. So a location shoot in Rome and Florence was no big move. Rome saw its share of films extolling the beauties of the Eternal City. But in this one the Renaissance beauty of Florence got its share of cinema immortality. The color cinematography of Light In The Piazza was its greatest asset.Olivia is on a mother/daughter holiday in Florence with Yvette Mimieux who when she was 10 was kicked in the head by a horse and has stayed at that age emotionally. But her physical development wasn't arrested any and she gets the attention of young Florentine George Hamilton. There's a whole lot of concern from both families because Hamilton is the same way.In addition to her daughter's romance, Olivia gets courted by Rossano Brazzi who is Hamilton's father. Some of the plot of A Summer Place is borrowed here as we glimpse into their married lives, Brazzi with the eternally crying Nancy Nevinson and DeHavilland with stuffed shirt Barry Sullivan who wants to institutionalize Mimieux because she's becoming an inconvenience.Light In The Piazza got an Oscar nomination for Best Sound. It was produced at MGM by Arthur Freed who was now out of the musicals business. Still this film has some of the decorative gloss that an MGM Freed musical you would expect to have. Yvette Mimieux may have given her best screen performance here. I think you'll agree.

edwagreen Excellent supporting performances are given in this 1962 film by Yvette Mimieux, as a mentally impaired young lady and by George Hamilton as her Italian suitor.The subject nature of the film is most interesting. A woman, whose own marriage is faltering, takes her daughter to Italy where the latter unexpectedly finds romance. What is difficult to take is that the young Fabrizio(Hamilton) and his family fail to realize that Clara (Mimieux) is mentally impaired. The dialogue reveals this in about 10 minutes into the film.Barry Sullivan has the under-stated role of Olivia De Havilland's husband, a tobacco executive, who briefly appears when he is summoned to Rome. What is also hard to embrace is the very sudden turn around by the mother (De Havilland) who at first does everything possible to break up the romance only to wholeheartedly endorse it.Some major social problems are dealt with here, especially what to do with mentally impaired children when the parents are no longer here.I found the ending to be more of a cop-out.

profcourtien Eileen and I enjoyed this movie very much. It is a very accurate story of how parents worry about the future of their adult children. It is best to watch the movie without knowing too much about it. The acting is excellent. It is interesting to watch a young George Hamiltion in his first few years of acting. The young woman is strikingly beautiful and does a great job also. She is Weena from the original Time Machine movie. The American father is the typical 1950s father who does not want to be involved in the details but wants to make all the critical decisions. While in Italy, the American Mother grows up as much as her daughter during the film.