The Battle of the Villa Fiorita

Dissatisfied British housewife Moira Clavering (Maureen O'Hara) falls for visiting Italian pianist Lorenzo Tasara (Rossano Brazzi). She leaves her cold husband and their two children. She decides to join Lorenzo on his Italian estate. The kids go to break them up with help from Lorenzo's daughter (Olivia Hussey).

This is like a twisted Disney kids' movie. I'm making it sound better than it is. First, this starts with Moira and sells the audience on this affair. The kids' journey has some wish fulfillment as they travel by themselves. It is completely unreasonable. Then the trip turns into a guilt trip and I am really annoyed at the boy. The two girls are more compelling. There is some good drama between them. I'm not saying that I want this affair or not. Lorenzo gets worst. I certainly wouldn't push her back to her husband. All paths are rather muddy. I have a solution, but it's a different time. The locations are lovely. The movie is problematic.

I liked the movie mainly for the picturesque views of the lake,( Lake Como?) the surrounding area, and scenes of the villa itself. So much of the architectural style is remincient of the paintings done by Maxfield Parrish in the early part of the 20th century. You sort of have to look around the actors in the various scenes to get glimpses of ornate retaining walls, stairs and elaborate ballusters around and into the lake. There is an elegance about marble (or granite, or just old concrete?) stairs going down into the water. And old world gardens full of flowers. Itn reminds me of the book "Italian Villas and their Gardens" by Edith Wharton, 1907, Which was illustrated by Parrish. And yes, the children in the movie steal the show; All three have a much stronger determination to achieve their goals than do any of the adults. It's a good story line , dated for the sixties. And is'nt this Olivia Hussey's first feature film?

This delightful 1965 film appeared at the local theater where I was a 16-year-old usher. Ushers used to tire of repeated film screenings, however, I couldn't get enough of this cinematic gem. An attractive British housewife (Maureen O'Hara) falls for a charming Italian musician (Rosanno Brazzi) and the adventure begins. Her thunderstruck children (Martin Stephens and Elizabeth Dear) become determined to rescue their love-struck mother and to restore family unity. Director Delmar Daves gives the children plenty of opportunities for abundant scene stealing. Olivia Hussey makes an auspicious film debut as the beautiful Donna. Cinematographer Oswald Morris captures the breathtaking beauty of Italy's Lago di Garda. Battle of the Villa Fiorita is an enchanting film that the whole family will enjoy.

While this should have been a rousing success given the stars (Richard Todd none other in a support role) it is lamed by a hopeless script in which a selfish woman (O'Hara) runs off to have an affair pursued by her pretty awful kids. The lover has a daughter (Hussey) who for some reason joins in the plot to separate the lovers and falls in love with the boy. The whole thing is unpleasant and it is difficult to know who is worse, the kids or the adults, so when Hussey gets a (well deserved) spanking from her father you just want to boot his backside to wake him up to his own responsibilities. All together a complete waste of time.

Maureen O'Hara and Rossano Brazzi are glowing middle-agers in love whose romance is thwarted by their respective pre-teen children: his haughty Italian daughter and her stubborn, bratty British boy and girl. Stories of kids meddling in their parents' love lives are usually successful if played as comedy; here, the melodrama gets to be too much, with the adults continually exasperated and the kids unlikably victorious in their immature pranks. The familial arguments which arise are probably realistic, but here they dissipate interest in the movie, particularly since the love affair between the grown-ups is much more interesting than the finger-pointing. ** from ****