The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Waste of time

Simply A Masterpiece

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Tennesee Williams' first novel has more current interest focus depth and meaning than do the more sensational novels he later wrote on more sordid subjects many turned into famous motion pictures. THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE delves into a world of lonely people first seeking comfort any price not expecting their bubble to inevitably burst once they move to an expatriate gathering region of a world Capitol City. When it does they often make a hasty a mid life crisis choice to pursue joie de vivre then when this goes bust as it will eventually prefer companionship at whatever cost. Quintero's only major screen effort casts three distinguished Hollywood personalities in the leads whose much admired acting chops are truly given a fine workout here. Vivien Leigh is the comfortable woman whose life is about to go bust once she finds herself alone by surprise with no life and no friends in an expatriate's hangout district of what could be any world class capitol city in any year but is in fact post world war two Rome. Warren Beatty is the gay Roman gigolo hired by madam Lotte Lenya to pretend be an eligible straight suitor sincerely interested in showing Vivian a good time. Brilliantly paced, edited and blocked it holds your interest throughout.

This is on my list of "watch whenever it's on," since it speaks to the temptation for women of degrading themselves rather than be alone. I must have seen it a dozen times, and the scenery is a great travelogue. Tennessee Williams can be very depressing, and this movie is no different, but it does have a decent message pertinent to older women especially. Vivian Leigh is very good, but Warren Beatty absolutely stinks in this. Two comments: 1. Without a doubt, Beatty's Italian accent is the WORST ever in any movie (worse than Brad Pitt's German one) 2. If that theme song sounds familiar, it's because it was stolen for the theme song of "Random Hearts," many years' later

Really enjoyed the film but was distracted every time Mr Beatty was on screen. I suppose he was hitting his stride in 1961 so 'they' had to use him in this film. I don't understand why some luscious Italian couldn't have been used instead. This reminds me of Meryl Streep's casting in The Bridges of Madison County. Awful. Use originals, not poor copies.Vivien Leigh was superb in the film.....so I suppose I am contradicting myself as she played an American! Her pathos was on display completely. Lotte Lenya was wonderful as the Contessa. She devoured her scenes with aplomb. It's interesting to watch movies where some of the actors are seamless and others try really hard. You notice the difference. Warren Beatty was clearly out of his league.

There are three major problems here, and not just for millennial-era viewers: 1) Jose Quintero's emotionally numb direction, 2) Warren Beatty in a role he wasn't cut out for until ten years later, and 3) Tennessee Williams's severely dated high concept.Quintero's lack of experience in film is evident. He was a stage director, and it shows here. The lines are spoken for the words to be understood from a distance. Quintero seems to have little sense of using the faces of the actors to convey anything in the one- or two-shots... save for what the estimable Ms. Leigh manages on her own.Beatty's Paolo needed at least some of Richard Gere's Julian (in "American Gigolo") to make this fly, but either he had no sense of the character himself or Quintero got in his way.William's book is a reflection of Williams himself as the title character. "TRSOMS" is Williams trying to work through the fear of his own histrionic narcissism too many years in advance of what he pictured aging to be for a "queen" rather than what it really is. He was only 38 when he wrote the novella, after all. Leigh's character is him, but only insofar as he could project a future that he had merely envisioned rather than actually experienced.I've read plenty about Ms. Leigh's own struggles and supposed identification with her character. But if that is the case, I don't see much of it on screen, again, perhaps, owing to the wooden direction.Younger viewers will have to interpret this as a "period piece." 1950 and 1960 are to them what the Victorian Age was to us: Anachronistic. The conflicting values expressed by the characters do not make much sense to those raised on either Lady Gaga or "Cougartown." Today's 48-year-olds "go for it" on the basis of peer-approval, not despite it.