Light in the Piazza (MGM) (1962)

SCENES FROM “LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA” Rossano Brazzi and Olivia de Havilland face a baffling problem in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s ‘‘Light in the Piazza,”’ filmization of Elizabeth Spencer’s prize-winning novel. Yvette Mimieux plays Miss de Havilland’s daughter, who falls in love with George Hamilton, Brazzi’s son, in the moving romantic drama. The Arthur Freed production was filmed in CinemaScope and color on locations in Florence and Rome. under the direction of Guy Green. Still 5062-61 Light in the Piazza Mat 2-D George Hamilton and Yvette Mimieux take their marriage vows in this scenefrom Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s‘‘Lightin the Piazza.”’ The moving love story, based on Elizabeth Spencer’s prizewinning novel, was filmed in CinemaScope and color on locations in Florence and Rome. Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi and Barry Sullivan also star in the Arthur Freed production, directed by Guy Green. Still 5062-20 Olivia de Havilland plays an American mother faced with a dramatic problem when her daughter falls in love while they are touring Italy, in ‘Light in the Piazza.’’ Also starred in the new MetroGoldwyn-Mayer film are Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux and George Hamilton, as the young lovers, and Barry Sullivan. The Arthur Freed production was filmed in CinemaScope and color on locations in Florence and Rome. Still 5026-48 Light in the Piazza Mat 1-E Light in the Piazza Mat 2-A International star Rossano Brazzi portrays a Continental charmer in Metro-GoldwynMayer’s ‘‘Light in the Piazza,”’ film version of the prize-win ning novel by ElizabethSpencer. The Arthur Freed production also stars Olivia de Havilland, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton and Barry Sullivan. It was filmed in CinemaScope and color on locations in Florence and Rome. Still 6363 Light in the Piazza Mat 1-D “LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA,” NEW ARTHUR FREED PRODUCTION FOR MGM, BASED ON ELIZABETH SPENCER'S PRIZE-WINNING NOVEL Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton, Barry Sullivan Star in Vibrant Love Story, Filmed in CinemaScope and Color on Locations in Florence and Rome Photographed in CinemaScope and color on locations in Florence and Rome, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has brought to the screen Elizabeth Spencer’s prize-winning novel, “Light in the Biazzaa Both the film’s producer, Arthur Freed, and its director, Guy Green, are Academy Award winners, as is also Olivia de Havilland, who plays Margaret Johnson, the attractive American woman who is _ visiting Florence with her daughter, Clara (Yvette Mimieux). Clara, while physically a fully matured young woman, has the innocent emotional reactions of a child. Miss Spencer’s story revolves about the doubt and uncertainties experienced by Margaret Johnson when Clara falls deeply in love with the impetuous young Italian, Fabrizio (George Hamilton). Frightened of the consequences which the blossoming relationship between the two young people may bring, failing in her attempt to tell the truth about Clara to the boy’s father, Signor Naccarelli (Rossano Brazzi) who is delighted at the prospect of Clara as a daughter-in-law, Margaret takes her daughter to Rome. Here they are joined by Noel Johnson (Barry Sullivan) who is blind to Clara’s despair at being separated from Fabrizio and is convinced that the only solution is to place her in a special private school. This is a solution Margaret cannot bring herself to accept. Instead, after her husband has gone back to America, she and Clara return to Florence, where an ardent Fabrizio is waiting for Clara to accept his proposal of marriage. Does Margaret finally permit her in nocent daughter to assume the responsibilities of marriage? Is she certain that the girl will find happiness and protection in the household of the warm and affectionate Naccarelli family? These are the questions which are brought up and resolved before the story is brought to its conclusion. Seldom has a film been photographed more handsomely than are the scenes in “Light in the Piazza,” which take place against the historic squares, streets, buildings and monuments of both Florence and Rome. There is even a sequence in the famed Uffizi Art Gallery, permitted to be used as a motion picture interior for the first time. Another delightful scene takes place against a gala “San Giovanni Day’ celebration in which the Florentines turn back the clock to medieval times. But first and foremost, “Light in the Piazza” is a romantic story of compelling emotional appeal, beautifully enacted by a uniformly fine cast. BRIEF SUMMARY Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton and Barry Sullivan are the principals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “Light in the Piazza,” filmed in CinemaScope and color on locations in Florence and Rome. The picture is based on the best-selling novel by Elizabeth Spencer, which won the first $10,000 McGraw-Hill Fic tion Award. It was produced by Arthur Freed and directed by Guy Green, both of whom have won Academy Awards. Julius Epstein adapted the novel to the screen. The story concerns an involved and dramatic emotional relationship between an American woman and her daughter visiting Florence, the Italian boy with whom the daughter falls in love, and the latter’s father. Miss de Havilland portrays the youthful mother faced with the problem of her daughter’s happiness. George Hamilton and Yvette Mimieux enact the romantic couple, with their respective fathers played by Brazzi and Sullivan. Many of the historic and beautiful buildings and monuments in Florence and Rome were photographed as backgrounds for the unusual love story. CAST Margaret Johnson-........Olivia de Havilland Signor Naccarelli-.............-... Rossano Brazzi lVarciJOHNSONe ee ereee eee ae Yvette Mimieux Fabrizio Naccarelli-_........... George Hamilton Noel Johnsoniiecs--c cee es Barry Sullivan Missutlawtree.2. 22 eer ss Isabel Dean MOP MinISteres 2-2... ees Moultrie Kelsall Signora Naccarelli-........... Nancy Nevinson An Arthur Freed Production. Directed by Guy Green. Screen Play by Julius J. Epstein. Based on a story by Elizabeth Spencer. In CinemaScope and Metrocolor, Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. THE ADDITIONAL SCENE AND PLAYER MATS, SHOWN IN THE COMPLETE CAMPAIGN MAT ON ANOTHER PAGE, MAY BE ORDERED SINGLY. “LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA” FILMED AGAINST BACKGROUND OF FLORENCE AND ROME Elizabeth Spencer’s “Light in the Piazza” won the first $10,000 McGrawHill Fiction Award and was snapped up for the motion picture screen by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer when it was printed as a novelette in the July 18, 1960 issue of the New Yorker, five months before being published as a novel. A month after its publication, it won the added distinction of being chosen by the Reader’s Digest for its Condensed Book Club special edition. Producer Arthur Freed decided to film the story on location in its original Italian settings of Florence and Rome, using the CinemaScope and _ color cameras to photograph the beautiful Italian countryside and its eternal cities. The picture was directed by Guy Green. Among the leaders of the modern school, Green’s two most recent films, “The Angry Silence” and “The Mark,” Britain’s entry to the Cannes Film Festival, have won him acclaim both in Europe and Hollywood. But American audiences remember him best for his camera work on “Great Expectations,” for which he won an Academy Award. 2 OSCARS BETWEEN THEM It isn’t often that the star, producer and director of a motion picture can account for a total of five Academy Awards between them, but that’s the case with Metro-GoldwynMayer’s “Light in the Piazza.” The film’s producer, Arthur Freed, won Oscars for “An American in Paris” and “Gigi.” Director Guy Green won his Academy Award for “Great Expectations.” Olivia de Havilland, starring in the new picture with Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux and George Hamilton, possesses two Academy statuettes, the first for ‘““To Each His Own,” the second for “The Heiress.” Moreover, Elizabeth Spencer, on whose novel the picture is based, is also a prize-winner, having been given the first $10,000 McGrawHill Fiction Award for her book. Selected for the starring roles were Olivia de Havilland, as the American mother visiting Florence with an “impossible’ dream for her daughter; Rossano Brazzi, as the Italian father of the boy with whom the daughter falls in love; George Hamilton, as this impetuous. young Italian; Yvette Muimieux, as the American girl awakening to romance; Barry Sullivan, as Miss de Havilland’s unimaginative businessman husband. In respect to Brazzi, a curious “coincidence” is attached to his role as Signor Naccarelli. It seems that the author of “Light in the Piazza” was so fascinated by the character Brazzi portrayed a few years ago opposite Katharine Hepburn in “Summertime” that she resolved to write a story based on her impressions of what this man would be like five years later. “T didn’t know that Miss Spencer had written her story with me in mind,” states Brazzi, “but when I read it, I told myself that I had to have that role.” He had little trouble convincing MGM executives, who also had read between the lines of Miss Spencer’s novel. Both Brazzi and Olivia de Havilland were very much at home in the film’s Italian backgrounds which include such Florence landmarks as the Ponte Vecchio, Piazza della Signoria, Boboli Gardens, Piazza Michelangelo and Uffizi Gallery and, in Rome, the Forum, Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo and the suburban Hadrian’s Villa. Brazzi was born in Florence, and Miss de Havilland has made her home abroad for the past four years during which she has made frequent visits to Italy. WON ROLE IN A PINCH! Young Italian actor Gaetano Racano won a role in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “Light in the Piazza’—in a pinch! During location filming in Florence, Italy, Director Guy Green auditioned several hopefuls for the part of a young man who appreciatively pinches Yvette Mimieux as she and George Hamilton push their way through a_ football game crowd. Racano passed the “pinch test” best. He claims his acting career in the Arthur Freed production was a mere matter of “touch and go.”