The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Mrs. Stone is an aging actress and devoted wife of a man who, after his wife's rather pathetic last bow on Broadway as Juliet, takes her to Rome to escape the critics and the public. She is a woman of means and when her husband dies suddenly of a heart attack she finds herself alone in a way she has never known. She decides to remain in Rome rather than returning to America. Though an actress by profession she is rather shy by nature and a vulnerable woman who stares a bit too long in the mirror that reminds her of her fading glamour. In attempting to 'adjust' to her new expatriate status she mingles and meets a lecherous 'Contessa' who loathes Americans (silently) for her postwar lack of money. Actually the Contessa makes her living by manipulating the wealthy visiting Americans, particularly lonely wealthy women who need succor. She 'arranges' dates with handsome Italian gigolos, encourages her men to make the women fall in love, and then perpetrates schemes to capture their money.

Mrs Stone is thus squired by legions of handsome men and eventually meets the one young gigolo with whom she can fall in love/lust. They have an extended affair until the obvious need for big money takes importance and Mrs Stone is left alone, injured, and feeling foolish. All during the story there is a disheveled beggar who stalks her and when she at last is left out in the cold, she invites the beggar up to her rooms for...and that is where Tennessee Williams leaves the ending to us!

Helen Mirren is wholly believable as Mrs Stone. She holds a flawless American accent, carries herself as the actress she is, and becomes as beautiful as any creature can become when love walks beside her. The costumer for the film provides spectacular gowns for her character and she carries them off with aplomb. The sleazy Contessa is played to a fare-thee-well by Anne Bancroft: you can almost smell her rags and wigs and evil breath. Mrs Stone's lover is Olivier Martinez and he burns up the screen with his sexuality and nobility of demeanor. Even the beggar is given the importance to be acted by Rodrigo Santoro who again proves that words are completely unnecessary when defining a sex symbol garbed even in filth. He is magic.

The settings are magnificent, the ironies between the wealthy and the poor are stated in just the right way, and all of Tennessee Williams' trademark characteristic symbols are in place. This is a superb film and an absolutely stunning performance by Helen Mirren. Get on the order list now and prepare for a pure delight in drama.

Incidentally, Anne Bancroft plays the heavy (the Madame role) in this one, of course we all remember Anne Bancroft played a role, similar to Helen Mirren's, in The Graduate, where Dustin Hoffman played the "May" in the May-December romance and Anne Bancroft played the "December" as "Mrs. Robinson."
DVD includes interviews with Helen Mirren and Olivier Martinez.