Up at the Villa
USA/UK 1999
Reviewed by John Mount
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Florence, 1938. Penniless widow Mary Panton lives in a borrowed villa and socialises with the expatriate Anglo-American community. Sir Edgar Swift, 25 years her senior, proposes marriage. Mary asks for time to decide. Sir Edgar leaves Mary his revolver for her protection. Princess San Ferdinando urges Mary to marry Sir Edgar, soon to be Governor of Bengal, and suggests she take a lover if she grows bored. At the Princess's dinner party Mary receives the unwelcome attentions of Fascist officer Beppino Leopardi and meets charming American playboy Rowley Flint. She is attracted to Rowley but rejects his advances when he escorts her home. Impulsively, she has sex with Karl Richter, an Austrian refugee. Mary rebuffs Karl when he returns the next night. Richter shoots himself with Sir Edgar's gun.
Rowley helps Mary dump Karl's body; he is arrested by Leopardi. Mary steals incriminating files on Leopardi from the Princess; in exchange for the files, Leopardi releases Rowley. Mary parts from Rowley. On being told what has happened, Sir Edgar sticks to his proposal of marriage but explains that he will have to resign. Mary rejects him. Later, she runs into Rowley.
Review
Director Philip Haas and his co-writer editor and wife Belinda Haas produced some interesting literary adapations during the 90s, notably The Music of Chance and Angels and Insects. Coolly intelligent and distinguished by understated observation, both films were effective in teasing out the more unsettling aspects of their original source material. But for all the directorial polish on show, the Haases' films have tended to start promisingly but fall frustratingly short of expectations. The same is true of their latest film, based on a W. Somerset Maugham novel: Up at the Villa is perfectly enjoyable fare but not the stunning period drama one feels the Haases are capable of.
In late-40s Hollywood Christopher Isherwood failed to write a screen adaptation of Maugham's novel because its tale of a young widow caught between financial obligation and romantic desire was considered too sexually explicit. Having finally reached the screen, the film ironically seems too restrained, its handling of the novel too discreet to make much impact on a contemporary audience. This said, Haas shows a great deal of delicacy in his dissection of the emotional turmoil Mary suffers after her impetuous one-night stand leads her to the brink of ruin. Kristin Scott Thomas gives a customarily convincing portrayal of a romantic Englishwoman chafing against the double standards of upper-class society. And what threatens to be a clichéd romance with Sean Penn actually sputters into life, in large part thanks to Penn's performance.
Up at the Villa is less effective when augmenting the scant political background of the novel with a more explicit historical context - the film's depiction of Italian fascism, for instance, is obvious and lacks insight. Similarly some of the minor characters are portrayed a little too broadly (although Derek Jacobi's cameo as a Quentin Crisp-like Lucky Leadbetter is strangely engaging and Anne Bancroft gives a commanding queen-bee performance as the Princess). Unsurprisingly, given the consummate visual style of Haas' earlier films, the lush Tuscan settings are expertly photographed, framing perfectly the sybaritic lifestyle of the expat community. Haas imbues this idyllic setting with a slow-burning sense of foreboding and occasionally hints at a more lurid, pliable morality under the genteel surface. But, like Neil Jordan's marginally more successful The End of the Affair, he fails to pull off the trick of depicting the period without lapsing into stiff-lipped, straight-backed mannerisms and creaky lines of dialogue.
Credits
- Director
- Philip Haas
- Producer
- Geoff Stier
- Screenplay
- Belinda Haas
- Based on the novella by
- W. Somerset Maugham
- Director of Photography
- Maurizio Calvesi
- Editor
- Belinda Haas
- Production Designer
- Paul Brown
- Music
- Pino Donaggio
- ©Mirage Enterprises and Intermedia Film Equities Ltd
- Production Companies
- Intermedia Films and October Films present a Mirage-Stanley Buchtal production
- Executive Producers
- Sydney Pollack
- Arnon Milchan
- Stanley Buchthal
- Co-executive Producers
- Guy East
- Nigel Sinclair
- Co-producer
- David Brown
- Associate Producers
- Davien Littlefield
- Guido Cerasuolo
- Production Supervisor
- Guido Cerasuolo
- Production Co-ordinator
- Laura Cappato
- UK Co-ordinator
- Julia Overton
- Production Manager
- Gianluca Leurini
- Location Manager
- Enrico Ballarin
- Post-production Supervisor
- Susan Lazarus
- Assistant Directors
- Luca Lachin
- Marco Pettini
- Yozo Tokuda
- Eileen Gorman
- Script Supervisor
- Rachel Griffiths
- Casting
- Celestia Fox
- Rome:
- Shaila Rubin
- Camera Operator
- Roberto Ruzzolini
- Steadicam Operators
- Marco Pieroni
- Alessandro De Pascalis
- Special Effects
- Roberto Ricci
- Riccardo Ricci
- Claudio Quaglietti
- Silvano Scasseddu
- Art Directors
- Anna Deamer
- Livia Borgognoni
- Anna Deamer
- Set Decorator
- Gianfranco Fumagalli
- Storyboard Artist
- David Orlandelli
- Costume Designer
- Paul Brown
- Wardrobe Supervisors
- Catherine Buyse
- Richard Pointing
- Chief Make-up Artist
- Maurizio Silvi
- Make-up Artists
- Joan Giacomin
- Rosario Prestopino
- Federica Jacoponi
- Laura Borzelli
- Gianbattista Graziano
- Leonarda Paglietta
- Micaela Alleyson
- Chief Hairdresser
- Aldo Signoretti
- Hairdressers
- Ferdinando Merolla
- Mirella Ginnoto
- Enzo Mastrantonio
- Massimiliano Duranti
- Carla Indoni
- Marina Marin
- Giorgio Gregorini
- Rita Luciani
- Paolo Franceschi
- Carla Carisi
- Rita Cecchini
- Title Design
- Doyle Partners
- Opticals
- Cineric Inc
- Music Performed by
- Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra
- Conducted by
- Gianfranco Plenizio
- Music Supervisor
- Tim Sexton
- Music Co-ordinator
- Karen Kloack
- Music Editor
- Annette Kudrak
- Soundtrack
- Johann Strauss's "Schatz-Walzer"
- Choreography
- Karole Armitage
- Production Sound Mixer
- Ken Weston
- Additional Sound Mixer
- John Midgley
- Recordists
- Sam Kaufman
- Dave Moreno
- Larry Spotts
- Bob Olari
- Haythan Hassanein
- Re-recording Mixers
- Rick Ash
- Franco Morone
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Richard King
- Dialogue Editors
- James Matheny
- Hugo Weng
- Sound Effects Recordist
- Eric Potter
- ADR
- Mixers:
- Greg Steele
- David Humphries
- Jens Christensen
- Daryn Roven
- Supervising Editor:
- Kimberly Harris
- Editor:
- Linda Folk
- Foley
- Supervisor:
- Christopher Flick
- Artists:
- Zane Bruce
- Joe Sabella
- Mixer:
- Brian Ruberg
- Editor:
- Mark Pappas
- Cast
- Kristin Scott Thomas
- Mary Panton
- Sean Penn
- Rowley Flint
- Anne Bancroft
- Princess San Ferdinando
- James Fox
- Sir Edgar Swift
- Jeremy Davies
- Karl Richter
- Derek Jacobi
- Lucky Leadbetter
- Massimo Ghini
- Beppino Leopardi
- Dudley Sutton
- Harold Atkinson
- Lorenza Indovina
- Nina
- Roger Hammond
- Colin Mackenzie
- Clive Merrison
- Archibald Grey
- Linda Spurrier
- Hilda Grey
- Ben Aris
- Colonel Trail
- Anne Ridler
- Lady Trail
- Anne Bell
- Beryl Bryson
- Barbara Hicks
- Lulu Good
- Gianfranco Barra
- Peppino
- Gretchen Given
- Isa MacKenzie
- Mary Shipton
- dowager
- Pierantonio 'Noki' Novara
- guard
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- United International Pictures (UK) Ltd
- 10,426 feet
- 115 minutes 51 seconds
- Dolby Digital
- Colour by
- Technicolor, NY