Alessandro Cicognini’s name is not familiar outside Italy. He was, he died aged 89 in 1995, a prolific composer of music for Italian films – more than a hundred. David Lean’s name is definitely familiar.
The two came together in Summertime released in 1955 and shot entirely on location in Venice. The film was adapted from a play with a bit of help from HE Bates and others. In those days Venice wasn’t keen on films being shot in the Serenissima; it would be bad for tourism! The Vatican thought the plot immoral and forbade any scenes in which too much flesh was exposed. Nevertheless the film was made. In one scene Katharine Hepburn, reluctantly, agreed to accidentally fall in a canal. Lean didn’t think a body double would be convincing. Hepburn was on the money – it took four takes and she was troubled by conjunctivitis for the rest of her life.
Summertime is not a great film set in Venice like Don’t Look Now and Death in Venice. Summertime is not a great David Lean romance like Dr Zhivago or Brief Encounter. Summertime surprisingly was David Lean’s favourite film. He bought a holiday home there, seduced by the city. It’s easy to muddle up Katharine and Audrey Hepburn. The latter was not an easy actress to work with, according to Cecil Beaton when they were making My Fair Lady and Coco.
“She is the egomaniac of all time . . . a raddled, rash-ridden, freckled, burnt, mottled, bleached and wizened piece of decaying matter.” (The Unexpurgated Beaton)
Homosexual men are such bitches.
Will great, epic films be made again? Proper films with a programme, an overture and an interval; films directed by David Lean, Stanley Kubrick and Quentin Tarantino. The last I saw was QT’s The Hateful Eight.
If I knew how to direct a film I would adapt The Transylvanian Trilogy for the screen. As I read it, I can see it on celluloid. Milkós Bánffy’s epic novel filmed on location in Transylvania. The cast will be mostly Austrian, Hungarian and Bulgarian; actors and actresses unknown to cinema audiences outside their countries. Remember how compelling John Huston’s The Dead is, with its superb Irish cast? I haven’t settled on a cinematographer or composer yet but the overall effect will be an Eastern European Il Gattopardo (Luchino Visconti, 1963).