The sun shines brighter in Tuscany
November 21, 2003 | 12:00am
Life offers you a thousand choices... all you have to do is take one." This is the tagline from the movie Under the Tuscan Sun starring Diane Lane as Frances Mayes, a recently divorced writer who, in a Dali-like move, entirely gives up the life she knows and moves to unfamiliar Tuscany to reinvent herself and look for a new beginning.
Under the Tuscan Sun is just another offering in a line of art films that have, only in recent years, graced the local cinema scene. I love art and independent films and I couldn’t be happier that we’re finally embracing this unique and distinctive world of motion pictures. Admittedly, this Diane Lane flick would probably be considered a more commercial art film but it’s an art film just the same. And while it didn’t fare too well being shown in the art cinema at Greenbelt 1, I was happy to note that it was showing to a full theater when I caught it last Saturday.
I have to admit that this film falls into the easily predictable genre. There was even a scene involving Italian lover Marcello that my friend was able to predict right on the money. Despite that, I recommend catching the film just the same. It’s a movie riddled with clichés that still manages to avoid being "cliché." You have the heartbroken woman destroyed by the failure of a past relationship looking for a new beginning in a beautiful foreign country and meeting a wild and unconventional mélange of characters as she does so.
Under the Tuscan Sun is the story of an author, Frances, who suddenly finds out that her husband has been cheating on her and is asking for a divorce. She spends a great deal of time wallowing in the world of "merely existing" (a world that anyone who has had their heart broken is quite familiar with) instead of living while trying to re-group. Luckily, her lesbian friends force a ticket to Tuscany on her with the Gay and Away tour group and her life suddenly changes. Realizing she doesn’t have anything to lose, she chucks it all away and moves into a beautiful old Tuscan villa intent on starting her life over again. To help her on this road of self-discovery are an eccentric bunch of Polish architects, a sexy Italian lover, a pregnant lesbian friend, a cross-cultural young couple looking for love, and a wild and exciting ex-actress who used to star in Fellini films and who, in between reliving her old movie glory, drops nuggets of wisdom like "Never forget to live your life with the exuberance and childlike wonder of everything around you." – a sort of carpe diem for the millennium.
In either case, protagonist Frances struggles to rebuild her life as she struggles to rebuild the villa she purchased and as she comes face to face with her grief she realizes what she really wants in life and that this her second chance to go for it.
It’s not just the hopeful feel of the film that makes it beautiful. In an Amelie-like way, the movie shows the rainbow of human emotions against the beautiful backdrop of Italy. For a US-bred Filipina like me it was hard to imagine anything being sad in an environment so majestic. The cinematography showcased wonderful Italian landscapes and the stark contrast between the sun shining on the white-washed stones of beachside villas and the glittering of the turquoise blue sea beneath them. At the same time, the movie also shows that running away from your problems in a foreign land isn’t an instant guarantee to happiness. As the storm shakes the foundations of Frances’ villa on her first night there the audience comes to realize that change has to come from within in order for it to work.
As for the acting, Audrey Wells hit gold with her talented group of thespians. Diane Lane shines in this film. I was already a big fan after Unfaithful and I can honestly say that she keeps getting better and better. And the rest of the cast, including Sandra Oh and Lindsay Duncan, deliver warm and touching performances as the friends who help shape Frances’ life along the way.
I think that one of the best things one can get from watching this movie, other than the good old-fashioned warm and fuzzy feeling, is the thought that life is full of opportunities and no matter how bad it may seem to get things will always work out in their own way. You don’t necessarily have to get everything you ask for in the exact way you asked for it in order to be happy. Sometimes life throws you a curveball and before you know it you’re happy in ways you never thought possible. More than a film about discovering yourself in a foreign setting, it’s a film about letting go of who you once were in order to become who you were meant to be.
E-mail me at aquamarine_tranquility@yahoo.com.
Under the Tuscan Sun is just another offering in a line of art films that have, only in recent years, graced the local cinema scene. I love art and independent films and I couldn’t be happier that we’re finally embracing this unique and distinctive world of motion pictures. Admittedly, this Diane Lane flick would probably be considered a more commercial art film but it’s an art film just the same. And while it didn’t fare too well being shown in the art cinema at Greenbelt 1, I was happy to note that it was showing to a full theater when I caught it last Saturday.
I have to admit that this film falls into the easily predictable genre. There was even a scene involving Italian lover Marcello that my friend was able to predict right on the money. Despite that, I recommend catching the film just the same. It’s a movie riddled with clichés that still manages to avoid being "cliché." You have the heartbroken woman destroyed by the failure of a past relationship looking for a new beginning in a beautiful foreign country and meeting a wild and unconventional mélange of characters as she does so.
Under the Tuscan Sun is the story of an author, Frances, who suddenly finds out that her husband has been cheating on her and is asking for a divorce. She spends a great deal of time wallowing in the world of "merely existing" (a world that anyone who has had their heart broken is quite familiar with) instead of living while trying to re-group. Luckily, her lesbian friends force a ticket to Tuscany on her with the Gay and Away tour group and her life suddenly changes. Realizing she doesn’t have anything to lose, she chucks it all away and moves into a beautiful old Tuscan villa intent on starting her life over again. To help her on this road of self-discovery are an eccentric bunch of Polish architects, a sexy Italian lover, a pregnant lesbian friend, a cross-cultural young couple looking for love, and a wild and exciting ex-actress who used to star in Fellini films and who, in between reliving her old movie glory, drops nuggets of wisdom like "Never forget to live your life with the exuberance and childlike wonder of everything around you." – a sort of carpe diem for the millennium.
In either case, protagonist Frances struggles to rebuild her life as she struggles to rebuild the villa she purchased and as she comes face to face with her grief she realizes what she really wants in life and that this her second chance to go for it.
It’s not just the hopeful feel of the film that makes it beautiful. In an Amelie-like way, the movie shows the rainbow of human emotions against the beautiful backdrop of Italy. For a US-bred Filipina like me it was hard to imagine anything being sad in an environment so majestic. The cinematography showcased wonderful Italian landscapes and the stark contrast between the sun shining on the white-washed stones of beachside villas and the glittering of the turquoise blue sea beneath them. At the same time, the movie also shows that running away from your problems in a foreign land isn’t an instant guarantee to happiness. As the storm shakes the foundations of Frances’ villa on her first night there the audience comes to realize that change has to come from within in order for it to work.
As for the acting, Audrey Wells hit gold with her talented group of thespians. Diane Lane shines in this film. I was already a big fan after Unfaithful and I can honestly say that she keeps getting better and better. And the rest of the cast, including Sandra Oh and Lindsay Duncan, deliver warm and touching performances as the friends who help shape Frances’ life along the way.
I think that one of the best things one can get from watching this movie, other than the good old-fashioned warm and fuzzy feeling, is the thought that life is full of opportunities and no matter how bad it may seem to get things will always work out in their own way. You don’t necessarily have to get everything you ask for in the exact way you asked for it in order to be happy. Sometimes life throws you a curveball and before you know it you’re happy in ways you never thought possible. More than a film about discovering yourself in a foreign setting, it’s a film about letting go of who you once were in order to become who you were meant to be.
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