A failing star is faced with a lifestyle change when her rich husband suddenly dies while they are en route to Italy. She then sets off in a series of flings with gigolos found for her by an... Read allA failing star is faced with a lifestyle change when her rich husband suddenly dies while they are en route to Italy. She then sets off in a series of flings with gigolos found for her by an aging contessa. Each contact spirals further out of control until she becomes obsessed wi... Read allA failing star is faced with a lifestyle change when her rich husband suddenly dies while they are en route to Italy. She then sets off in a series of flings with gigolos found for her by an aging contessa. Each contact spirals further out of control until she becomes obsessed with one young man, who initially treats her well, but then with disdain.
- Nominated for 5 Primetime Emmys
- 1 win & 17 nominations total
Photos
- Marco
- (as Riccardo Sadroné)
- Guido
- (as Angel Alonso)
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAnne Bancroft's last live-action movie.
- GoofsWhen Paolo takes off his shirt in the car, the blue tattoo on his chest shows through the makeup intended to conceal it.
- Quotes
Karen Stone: Beauty is a world of its own. It has a godly license. I know it only too well, I possessed it once. And then the license was revoked.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 55th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2003)
Williams's preoccupations were generally local, or at least American. In this story, however, he has introduced a European/American theme and I wondered if Williams had not been recently reading some Henry James. Here we have the American ingenue confronted by the might and deviousness of the European sophistication and tradition. The Italians may be impoverished, they may be reduced to running scams and fixing up lonely ladies with gigolos, they may be living in penury and have to beg but they have the weight of the European tradition and culture to support them in adversity. So the age of Rome is mentioned at least twice, overstating its age by some hundreds of years, and Paolo draws attention to the oldest street in the city. Whether it is or not, it serves his purpose to say it is. But to Karen he says: "You are only fifty years old" which to her should be an unspoken criticism, and shocks her that he should say it aloud. But he is really saying: You Americans have no history compared to us", a sentiment espoused earlier by the Contessa who opines that any country with less than 400 years of history, has no tradition. We see in advance the pathetic contempt that the vanquished European has for the triumphant ( and sometimes triumphal) American. It is fully articulated in the last scene with the Contessa in a bitter attack born of frustration. Without assessing the relative moralities of Karen Stone or the Contessa or Paolo, it is the American who morally crumbles at the end, inviting an unwashed, unkempt, possibly very smelly young man (he's a bit too old to be an 'urchin') into her bedroom. Her degradation is complete. It doesn't require anyone to murder her. She is already destroyed. The Italians still have their culture, traditions, and history to fall back on.
Much has been said of the acting of various characters so I don't want to comment on this other than to say that Olivier Martinez seems to have received special attention for being wooden. Having not seen him in anything else, it's hard to make a comprehensive statement about his acting but I thought he conveyed the stiffness and arrogance that one would expect of a 'titled' person. Others may disagree.
- britishsteamwave
- Nov 3, 2005
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- Римська весна місіс Стоун
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