Summertime (1955)

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

H.E. Bates (screenplay) &
David Lean (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

14 August 1955 (Japan)

Genre:

Romance | Drama

Tagline:

It Happens to Hepburn - It Happens in Venice!

Plot:

A lonely American woman unexpectedly finds romance in Venice, Italy.

Plot Keywords:

Venice Italy | Secretary | American | Camera | Train

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Katharine Hepburn	...	Jane Hudson
Rossano Brazzi	...	Renato de Rossi
Isa Miranda	...	Signora Fiorini
Darren McGavin	...	Eddie Yaeger
Mari Aldon	...	Phyl Yaeger
Jane Rose	...	Mrs. McIlhenny
MacDonald Parke	...	Mr. McIlhenny
Jeremy Spenser	...	Vito de Rossi
Gaetano Autiero	...	Mauro
Virginia Simeon	...	Giovanna
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Lean	...	Man at Café (uncredited) (unconfirmed)
André Morell	...	Englishman (uncredited)

Directed by
David Lean

Writing credits
H.E. Bates		(screenplay) &
David Lean		(screenplay)
Donald Ogden Stewart		uncredited
Arthur Laurents		play "The Time of the Cuckoo"

Produced by
Ilya Lopert	....	producer
Norman Spencer	....	associate producer

Original Music by
Alessandro Cicognini

Cinematography by
Jack Hildyard

Film Editing by
Peter Taylor

Production Design by
Vincent Korda

Makeup Department
Grazia De Rossi	....	hairdressing (as Gracia de Rossi)
Cesare Gambarelli	....	makeup artist (as Cesare Gamberelli)

Production Management
Raymond Anzarut	....	production manager
Franco Magli	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alberto Cardone	....	assistant director
Adrian Pryce-Jones	....	assistant director

Art Department
Ferdinand Bellan	....	assistant art director
William Hutchinson	....	assistant art director (as Bill Hutchinson)
Italo Tomassi	....	manager of art department (uncredited)

Sound Department
John Cox	....	sound re-recordist
Peter Handford	....	sound recordist
Winston Ryder	....	sound editor
Jacqueline Thiédot	....	sound editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Archie Dansie	....	chief electrician
Peter Newbrook	....	camera operator

Other crew
Walter Fried	....	presented on Broadway by
Robert J. Kingsley	....	assistant to producer
Maggie Unsworth	....	continuity (as Margaret Shipway)
Robert Whitehead	....	presented on Broadway by
Walter Fried	....	producer: original stage production (uncredited)
Robert Whitehead	....	producer: original stage production (uncredited)

Production Companies

• London Film Productions (uncredited)
• Lopert Films (present)

Distributors

• Independent Film Distributors (IFD) (1955) (UK) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1955) (USA) (theatrical) (released thru)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1976) (USA) (TV)
• Criterion Collection, The (1997) (laserdisc)
• Criterion Collection, The (1998) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Summer Madness (UK)

Runtime:

UK:99 min | USA:100 min | Argentina:102 min | West Germany:100 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English | Italian

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Australia:PG | New Zealand:PG | UK:PG | Finland:S | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Campo San Barnaba, Venice, Veneto, Italy

Company:

London Film Productions

Trivia:

Reportedly David Lean's personal favorite of his own films.

Goofs:

Continuity: The amount of wine in Di Rossi's glass when he first sees Jane - the glass is empty, then full.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Making of 'The Bridge on the River Kwai' (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

Summertime In Venice

The Venice of "Summertime," in the Piazza San Marco, is indeed unique…

Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn), a middle-aged American school teacher, arrives in Venice, fulfilling a lifelong dream… On her first evening, she has an encounter with Mauro, an enterprising little street child, who becomes her unofficial escort… But in the evening, while seating in a crowded café, she sees a handsome man in a gray flannel suit... Her first instinctive reaction was to oppose, pay the bill, escape, and keep out of sight...

The next evening, she sits alone to take a drink in the Piazza San Marco, but with a wandering eye… As the violins begin playing 'Summertime in Venice', Jane would turn away in a heart beat to see Renato passing by… To hide her anxiousness, she inclines the chair next to her, pretending that she is expecting a company... Jane has come to Venice to find a handsome, unmarried hero of her dreams... But she is furious and resentful... She really can't understand what she is doing...

The most advantageous thing about David Lean's 'Summertime' is its sensitive portrait of the loneliness that holds back the fancy secretary, a desperately single heroine whose search for romance and adventure is prevented less by cultural differences than by her own feeling defenses...

Hepburn is a pleasant tourist with great magnetism... Rossano Brazzi is too powerful, tempting and charming as Renato, the Venetian who couldn't catch a fallen white gardenia in one of the canals of his town…