Up at the Villa

Plot synopsis:
The action takes place in the late 1930s. 30-year-old Mary Panton, whose extraordinary beauty has always been one of her greatest assets, has been a widow for one year. Her late husband Matthew, whom she married at 21 because she loved him, turned out to be an alcoholic, a gambler, a womaniser, and a wife-beater. Mary endures all the hardship and pain inflicted on her by her husband (including his having sex with her while drunk). When he drinks and drives, he has a car accident. A few hours later, he dies in Mary's arms. This, she concludes, is a blessing for both of them.
The Leonards (a couple who are not in the novel) offer Panton their 16th-century villa on a hill above Florence, Italy, for an extended stay. She gladly accepts the offer. The old villa is staffed by Nina, the maid, and Ciro, her husband and manservant—but it is otherwise empty. Mary, whose parents are both dead, enjoys the solitary life up at the villa. Occasionally, she joins other residents of, and visitors to, Florence for a party or luncheon. She enjoys driving round the countryside in her car. So far as a widow she has not taken a lover. She says it has been an easy decision as she has never been tempted.
During dinner at a restaurant with some of her acquaintances—among them the old Princess San Ferdinando, an American who is said to have been a "loose woman" in her day—they listen to a young man playing the violin. He is dressed in folkloric clothes and does not play well. At the end of the evening, the Princess tries to set Mary up with Rowley Flint, a young Englishman of independent means and risky reputation, by asking her to give him a lift back to his hotel. Flint makes a pass at her, but she rejects him, and laughs, even when he proposes to her.
After she has dropped him off, Mary drives back home. On her way, although it is late at night, she stops to have a look at the scenery. She senses someone nearby and learns that it is Karl Richter, the fiddler from the restaurant, who is also admiring the view. They begin to talk, and Mary learns that he is a 23-year-old Austrian art student who has fled his country because of Nazi persecution. Without a passport or documents, he is staying as an illegal immigrant in a rented room near the Leonards' villa.
Mary takes pity on Richter, and invites him to look at the paintings in the villa. Learning he had gone without dinner, Mary fixes him some bacon and eggs. They have wine with their improvised meal. They end up in bed.
When Mary thinks it is time for Richter to leave and the latter, to her dismay, asks when he will be able to see her again, the idyll quickly deteriorates. Mary remembers the revolver her suitor, 54-year-old Sir Edgar Swift, has forced upon her as a means of protection. When Richter starts threatening her, she pulls it out and aims it at him. She cannot pull the trigger and advises him to try and escape to Switzerland.
After she tells him she slept with him from pity, Richter attacks her verbally. He picks her up and throws her on her bed, before covering her face with kisses. She tries to get away from him but he overpowers her. Seized with remorse over what he sees as the impossibility of life since escaping his homeland, Richter says, "You asked me not to forget you. I shall forget, but you won't." He shoots himself through the breast with Swift's gun.
The maid Nina hears the shot and comes to the bedroom door. Mary panics and sends her away. She phones Flint and asks him to help her. Mary is prepared to accept full responsibility for her actions. But Flint suggests they try to dispose of the body.
They put the body in the car and drive out into the country, where he dumps it. A car full of drunk Italians approaches and must slow to try to pass. When the party see Mary and Flint embracing each other as they pretend to be lovers, they start singing "La donna è mobile" and drive on. The next morning, Flint returns and leaves the revolver with Richter's body.
Mary sleeps almost until noon. She has an invitation for luncheon, and Flint has urged her not to show any signs of panic or fear, so she attends it. Her guilty conscience is her constant companion.
Sir Edgar Swift, who has known her and her parents since she was a little child, arrives, planning to renew his suit since she was widowed. He had told her of an impending promotion to a high government post in colonial India and his need for a suitable wife. He proposes to Mary before a short trip to Cannes on urgent government business. Mary tells him she will give him an answer when he returns.
Mary confesses everything when Swift returns. He says that he forgives her and that he still wants to marry her. But, he says he must give up the promised post because of the risk of her past being exposed. He suggests that he can retire, they will marry and move to the French Côte d'Azur. Mary, finally says that she does not love him and could not be around him all the time.
After Swift has left, Flint turns up at the villa. When he mentions owning an estate in Kenya, and having read Dr Johnson, he appears more attractive. Agreeing with him that life is about taking risks, Mary decides to accept his proposal.

Tags: violence, intrigue

Review:
"You're never a great man, when you have more mind than heart." E.P. Beauchene In a nutshell, Mary, (Kristin Scott Thomas), a distractingly beautiful English widow has more heart than mind in this period piece.
I found it hard to believe that anything with Sean Penn and Kristin Scott Thomas would be awful and had to check out the film for myself.
"Up at the Villa" addresses these topics as good as any other period film.I recommend this movie to those who, like I, enjoyed more than one of the following:The Talented Mr. RipleyGosford ParkHowards EndCountry LifeThe Wings of the DoveA Room with a ViewThe Remains of the Day. Good performances all around..
Sir Edgar Swift (James Fox) is the distinguished governor of Bengal who has come to court the widow Mary Panton (Kristin Scott Thomas).
No chemistry with Kristin Scott Thomas at all.How can you make a dull, uninspiring film in an exotic setting with great actors in a highly charged brink-of-war scenario?
I was stunned by Kristin Scott Thomas when I first saw her in The Tenth Man (co-starring with Derek Jacobi in that movie too) many years ago.
I don't like most of his roles in other movies - never have -, but he played a different, more complex and realistic yet rogue-ish character here than the hysterical ones he usually embraces (for God knows what reason), and I thought this actually worked.
Great actors...Kristin Scott Thomas, Sean Penn, Anne Bancroft, James Fox, Derek Jacobi ...if you can't get memorable performances out of this `A List' then the problem with this movie must be blamed on pitiful direction and an inadequate script.
Kristin Scott Thomas is the lead,(cross between Bette Davis & Gene Tierney) Sean Penn is a charming gigolo type & very subdued & with a very strange accent,(at least it is understandable.
Radiant performance by Kristen Scott Thomas, excellent performances by Sean Penn (understated)  Ann Bancroft and James Fox as well as the actor who plays the Austrian refugee--make this one of the year's most underrated and best films.There are many nuances, plot twists, great dialogue, urbane situations to entertain and invoke thoughtful questions about love and marriage.
I suppose part of the reason I like little films like this is in reaction to the Hollywood over the top blockbusters.The characters is this movie are well developed and believeable.
The British lord looking for a wife that he can handle and that he can show off, and picking up Kristin Scott Thomas for cheap, he thinks.Anne Bankcroft playing the insultated lying Princess, way over the hill, but trying to still pretend she is in the elites.Sean Penn, Rowley, the American scoundrel with integrity.Rather than rehash the main details which is what everyone else has done, I just wanted to try to balance the negative comments of some, saying that this movie I would very interesting and quite entertaining and delightful.A light suspence costume drama set in beautiful Italy under the fascists.
If you like stories about the British upper class and their foibles abroad, you'll enjoy"Up At the Villa." (What a rotten title!) Edward Fox is the perfect gentleman (isn't he always?) Sean Penn is the perfect cad.
Even the wonderful Anne Bancroft could do little to rescue this film from being a rather colourless account of well-to-do stiff-upper-lip British people hanging out in Florence on the eve of the Second World War. The dialogues are stiff, wooden, lending much lacklustre to the proceedings and is clearly visible in the performances offered by what, on paper, is a solid cast.
But one could not really care whether Kristin Scott Thomas finally made it with Sean Penn, James Fox, or the wretched violinist Jeremy Davies.
However, 'Up at the Villa' does serve as a pointer inasmuch as it may show in which direction serious attempts at character-driven or dialogue-driven films may be heading, whether period pieces or not.Nice photography in the Italian countryside, and am wondering if part of the film was in fact shot further north of Florence, maybe even in the Lombardy region..
Actually, it is even worse!What was so special about that small colony of English expatriates in Florence before the Second World War that the British movie industry might feel justify to devote as many as three feature films to it - first A ROOM WITH A VIEW, then TEA WITH MUSSOLINI, and now this well-packaged turkey?
Here, the only patches of colour are provided by Derek Jacobi, as a stylish old queen in exile, and Anne Bancroft, as a wily American princess who thinks that she might one day outwit even the Nazis (and might very well end up doing so, if only she could stop drinking all of those gin sodas and thus gives herself a chance to live that long).Edward Fox also provides some comic relief in the role of a British senior civil servant (perfect in that role, old boy, perfect!) just about to take up an important position as a provincial governor in colonial India and who talks as if he expected that the locals would actually WELCOME his presence there.
But even he gets boring after awhile - about midway through his 3-minute scene.As for the two principals (Sean Penn and Kristin Scott Thomas, both on automatic pilot), you cannot really feel sorry for them, as they spend the first half of the movie involving themselves in the most stupid mess, and then the second half painfully extricating themselves out of it.
It's low rating on IMDB is unwarranted because it is one of the year's best.Kristin Scott Thomas puts in an absolutely marvelous performance as Mary, a young British widow, penniless but beautiful.
Two such lovers in the persons of Sean Penn (a married American of devastating charm but uncertain background) and Jeremy Davies ( a poor, young Austrian refugee) appear.The plot never slackens or loses interest as we follow Mary through a labyrinthe of unexpected twists and turns.
W. Somerset Maugham's story is adapted for the screen by Belinda Haas and directed by Philip Hass and t proves to be a rather credible tale of the British and American outlooks on love and life all in the setting of pre-WW II Italy.
If this all sounds a bit confusing then it should be noted that the story (and film) are more about human actions under pressure of circumstances, about relationships, flights of fancy, slip-ups, weaknesses, trust and emotional maneuvering than a simple straightforward Italian/British/American tale.The cast is varied - Bancroft gives one of her signature performances, Sean Penn seems out of his element - but the beauty and skill of Kristin Scott Thomas make the film worth savoring.
Anne Bancroft, Sean Penn, Derek Jakobi...these are actors that Ilive to see perform together.Usually Kristin Scott Thomas is not my cuppa tea.
This is a period piece, plain and simple...there is no sense of climax or anticipation or "thrill".....It's not a bad movie.....It's just a movie, somewhat on the bland side....To me, it's not much of a romance, for you really never feel that Kristen Scott Thomas and Sean Penn have much chemistry between them, like Thomas and Fiennes did in the English Patient.
Despite some quality elements, foremost among them a lovely performance by Kristin Scott Thomas, 'Up at the Villa' emerges as a fairly dull, ultimately unsatisfying tale of stiff-upper-lipped romance played against a wartime backdrop.
In a way the film serves as something of a companion period piece to the recent 'Tea With Mussolini' since both films involve wealthy American expatriates living and flourishing in Italy in the days leading up to the Second World War. Thomas stars as Mary, a young British widow who, while she is occupying a Florentine villa, finds herself the object of romantic overtures by an assortment of men including a wealthy but married American man, Rowley Flint (Sean Penn), and a penniless Viennese refuge (Jeremy Davies) with whom she has a one night stand.
One of the problems with the story, based on a Somerset Maugham novella, is that, although Mary comes across as a sympathetic and often even a complex character at times  she is a caring, well-intentioned woman whose pampered existence leaves her unsuited for confronting the harshness of much of the world around her - the men whom she involves herself with emerge as both incredible and shallow.
The film is indeed stunning to look at, filled with views of beautiful Florentine architecture and the lush Italian countryside, but the look of the movie is not enough to distract us from the overall languid pacing, the undramatic exposition, and the lightweight histrionics of Mr. Penn.
As a result of such unequal pairing, Kristin Scott Thomas seems almost as if she is occupying this film alone for long stretches of time.
but the story seems be without precise end or the fundamental piece who complete the puzzle.film about duty of heart, about profound honesty in dark period, with an admirable performance demonstration by Anne Bancroft and a Sean Penn in a real good role, it is the frame of Kristin Scott Thomas work who transforms her character in a sort of scent drop.a sensitive story and a good adaptation.
As it's a Somerset Maugham adaptation, the simple tale deals with folks whose manner does not allow for much passion, who live in a period where reasonable marriages are prized--and that is the problem our repressed heroine, Kristen Scott Thomas faces as she grapples with oncoming age and a lack of financial resources; she meets American rascal Sean Penn, who is not Cary Grant nor was meant to be, but a playful lover who lives for the moment; it's refreshing to see Penn stretch different acting muscles without the usual angst and anger; There are numerous side benefits for those who enjoy an immersion in period--Tuscany during the rise of repressive Fascism, the Villa on well-manicured grounds, and Anne Bancroft deliciously dishy as a self-indulgent American princess.
I really like the scenery and the sleepiness of the pacing which picks up after the first half of the movie.Then in the second half of the movie, in an expected turn, the widow, who seems much too naive for her age and station, is the catalyst for an event which causes the roguish character (Sean Penn) to saunters into her life.
Somerset Maugham novella from which it is taken.Kristin Scott Thomas was exactly my idea of the heroine Mary Panton, a British widow in late 1938 Florence, who in short order has a marriage proposal, falls in love and has a one night stand and then gets mixed up in a sub-Hitchcockian plot with Sean Penn.There's a great cameo from Anne Bancroft as an ex-pat American (with a cruel streak towards the end).Not outstanding, but it hangs together and you feel you've had a bit of high and low culture by the end.
Sean Penn and Anne Bancroft are their usual marvellous selves, and everyone else is very good, too..
One day, Mary goes with their friends to a restaurant, where she meets Rowley Flint (Sean Penn), a man with bad reputation, and she gets upset with him.
Anne Bancroft has an outstanding performance, and Sean Penn, Kristin Scott Thomas, James Fox and Jeremy Davies has a great acting, as usual.
The greatest problem, in my point of view, is the lack of chemistry between the characters of Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn.
Were this not the case, a magnificent film might have emerged.Overcoming the shortcomings are the dialogue, exceptional casting (Anne Bancoft is terrific and Massimo Ghini is machismo, charming and threatening -- think James Mason), Firenze, and inspiring photography and costuming, all embraced by a charming and captivating story.If you find Scott-Thomas to be an English Grace Kelly, and love the pre-WWII period in Italy, this unappreciated jewel is a feast..
Very interesting story, typically good Scott-Thomas, appropriately low-key Penn.
It is also good to see cinematic attention given to Somerset Maugham's work.Kristen Scott Thomas and Sean Penn held the limelight throughout, and that's no bad thing.
Veteran English actor James Fox, who only occasionally appears in films, is fine in a small but important role as a British diplomat with the hots for the very available Kristin Scott Thomas.
But it's Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn who carry the film with their romantic chemistry, playing cat and mouse to the point of no return.
Scott Thomas' role and the performance she renders requires a sultry, emotionally seething character who, though desperate, has to play her cards carefully and appear in control.The film's production values are more than adequate, though it would be hard to make Florence look bad.
The film opens at a ballroom in 1930s Italy which is populated by vulgar Americans and uptight upper class Brits , but in truth UP AT THE VILLA plays out far more like a Merchant -Ivory production which is very bad news because it`s a very slow , and I do mean very slow romantic drama with some of the romance being very unlikely .
I like to watch films after I read the books but when I saw Sean Penn and Kristin Scott Thomas I thought to myself...
Mysteries are a favorite of mine and so the plot kept me interested and, to another point, I thought Sean Penn's performance was wonderful considering the role.
Yes, it was understated which I found wonderful, and yes, after a momentary pause to think, the romantic relationship between Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn seemed a bit odd, they don't seem to fit well together in that context.
I liked the actors Sean Penn and Derek Jacobi and I love Somerset Maugham's books.
I found out quickly that the characters were not at all likable but that ended up enhancing the story.The movie started getting interested when the main character, Mary, ends up having an affair with a poor young refugee because she feels "sorry for him" and is emulating the behavior of her rich, awful, self centered friend the queen (played brilliantly by Anne Bancroft).
Well, this affair ends with tragic results and then the movie becomes quite engrossing and the characters really become interesting.I really enjoyed Kristen Scott Thomas' performance and felt that she portrayed her complex character well.
Derek Jacobi actually ended up being the only likable character in the film even if he was over the top at times.I was less than thrilled with Sean Penn's performance and am surprised at the positive reviews of him.
I went to see this movie with a girl friend, I hadn't seen a "love" film for a long time, so I thought why not.She hated it.
As already mentioned the acting was very good but in my opinion there was not 'something in the air' with Kristen Scott Thomas and Sean Penn.
A rich period piece centered on the lives of wealthy residents of pre WWII Florence, `Up At The Villa' is lovely to look at, but dull to watch.
The story focuses on about four days in the life of Mary Panton (Kristin Scott Thomas), an English socialite living in Florence.
Mary's serene and boring life is turned upside down by a proposal from Sir Edgar (James Fox), a very wealthy man she doesn't love; her fascination with Rowley Flint (Sean Penn), a roguish playboy who irritates and attracts her; and a peccadillo with an indigent Austrian refugee.
This natural beauty in conjunction with some excellent lighting effects made this film a feast for the eyes.Kristin Scott Thomas' performance was marvelous despite the haplessness of her character.
It is too bad she didn't get more screen time.I rated this film a 7/10 on the strength of the photography and a great performance by Anne Bancroft.
Oh well, I still think adults will like this film for it's actors- Kristen Scott Thomas, Sean Penn, Anne Bancroft and Jeremy Davies, who made a breakthrough in Saving Private Ryan, and almost saves the movie here.
Set in Fascist Italy, specifically in the countryside above Florence, Up at the Villa sees Kristin Scott Thomas taking centre stage as an aristocratic English rose (much as she did in The English Patient) in the lead role of Mary Panton, a young lady torn between the romantic overtures of Sir Edgar Swift (James Fox) a kind but emminent English gentleman she is fond of, but does not love, and her search for a man that she can truly get excited about.
The story takes a dark and unexpected turn, when after a one-night stand with the violinist, Panton's spurning of the young man's advances, leads to an extreme action on his part.This romantic thriller sees a reunion of director Philip Haas working with actress Kristin Scott Thomas (they worked together on Angels and Insects) and plus points here include the writing of Belinda Haas which on the whole is entertaining and intuitive and the performances of Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn who are both strong in the lead roles.
Haas directs with skill, so go see if you like seeing Sean Penn and Kristin Scott Thomas on form because both turn in decent performances here..
I also like Anne Bancroft, Kristen Scott-Thomas and James Fox, so selecting this movie from my video rental store was easy.
How daft an assumption.There are some great actors here (Penn, Jacobi) and some at least competent ones (Bancroft, Thomas) -- Kristin sure has made some bad choices in films.-- But these walk through their parts, reading the story to us.
Guess how the story ends...?UP AT THE VILLA is not a bad film.
Sean Penn is good as always, even if his character is a big dude.
It was interesting to know that the director is the same of ANGELS AND INSECTS (also starring Kristin Scott Thomas), another so-so period drama, but more audacious than this.