Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

A writer impulsively buys a villa in Tuscany in order to change her life.

Director:

Audrey Wells

Writers:

Frances Mayes (book), Audrey Wells (screen story)

Stars:

Diane Lane, Raoul Bova, Sandra Oh

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Diane Lane	...	Frances
Sandra Oh	...	Patti
Lindsay Duncan	...	Katherine
Raoul Bova	...	Marcello
Vincent Riotta	...	Martini
Mario Monicelli	...	Old Man with Flowers
Roberto Nobile	...	Placido
Anita Zagaria	...	Fiorella
Evelina Gori	...	Nona Cardinale
Giulia Louise Steigerwalt	...	Chiara (as Giulia Steigerwalt)
Pawel Szajda	...	Pawel
Valentine Pelka	...	Jerzy
Sasa Vulicevic	...	Zbignew
Massimo Sarchielli	...	Nino
Claudia Gerini	...	Signora Raguzzi

Storyline

Frances Mayes is a San Francisco-based literature professor, literary reviewer and author, who is struggling in writing her latest book. Her outwardly perfect and stable life takes an unexpected turn when her husband files for divorce. He wants to marry the woman with whom he is having an affair. Frances supported her husband financially as he was writing his own book, and he sues her for alimony despite her financial difficulties. And he wants to keep the house. Frances eventually accepts her best friend Patti's offer of a vacation, a gay tour of Tuscany which Patti and her lesbian partner Grace originally purchased for themselves before Patti found out that she is pregnant. The gift is a means to escape dealing with the divorce, from which Patti feels Frances may never recover emotionally without some intervention. Feeling that Patti's assessment may be correct in that she has too much emotional baggage ever to return to San Francisco, Frances, while in Tuscany, impulsively ditches ...

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Plot Keywords:

villa | writer | book | vacation | author | 

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Taglines:

The Only Thing More Surprising Than The Chance She's Taking...Is Where It's Taking Her

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Shares filming location of Montepulciano, Italy with study abroad documentary Di passaggio (2009) and The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009).

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Goofs

When the real estate agent starts the fire in the wood stove he leaves the matches, plates, and wood items on top of the stove instead of removing them. These all could catch fire in real life.

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Quotes

Martini: Signora, between Austria and Italy, there is a section of the Alps called the Semmering. It is an impossibly steep, very high part of the mountains. They built a train track over these Alps to connect Vienna and Venice. They built these tracks even before there was a train in existence that could make the trip. They built it because they knew some day, the train would come.

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Connections

Referenced in Fresh Off the Boat: Under the Taipei Sun (2019)

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Soundtracks

Il vecchiotto cerca moglie
(from "Il barbiere di Siviglia" Act II No. 14: Berta's aria)
Music by Gioachino Rossini
Performed by Magyar Rádió Énekkara (as Hungarian Radio Chorus) (credited but not used) and the Failoni Kamerazenekar (as Failoni Chamber Orchestra)
Sung by Ingrid Kertesi (uncredited)
Courtesy of Naxos
By Arrangement with Source/Q

User Reviews

A Feel-Good Film

Diane Lane has always fascinated me, ever since I saw her debut movie, "A Little Romance," as a pre-teen. (She was in her early teens.) She has an elusive quality. She can look like a middle-aged, mom-next-door in one scene, and a girlish young woman in the next, seemingly without effort. Anyway, she is a consistently good actress, and, as Frances, is the one through whose eyes we see the story of "Under the Tuscan Sun." This is a delightful little movie, featuring lots of beautiful scenery, and containing some valuable messages: that love creates a family, and that oftentimes, our dreams come true in ways we would not have imagined. Sometimes, we have only to open our eyes to see the answers to our wishes right in front of us.

Details

Country:

USA Italy

Language:

English Italian Polish French Spanish German

Release Date:

26 September 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Under the Tuscan Sun

Filming Locations:

Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$18,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,751,425, 28 September 2003

Gross USA:

$43,610,723

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$58,878,723

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, Timnick Films, Blue Gardenia Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1