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:

Life offers you a thousand chances ... all you have to do is take one.

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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

Kate Walsh plays the significant other of Sandra Oh; both went on to play doctors in Grey's Anatomy (2005).

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Goofs

When Francesca goes to Positano to surprise Marcello, she rides up the winding roads on the back of a Police motor scooter. As they make a sharp right turn, we see an unobstructed view of a miniature village scene in the wall at that turn. A moment later when the camera angle changes, all of a sudden a parked blue truck appears, along with an attentive worker standing behind it.

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Quotes

Patti: There's something strange about these trees. It's like they know.
Frances: And they know that we know that they know.
Patti: They're creepy. Creepy Italian trees. Of course, the baby's going to like them cause it's going to be a creepy Italian baby who goes around saying things like 'Ciao mama' and doing that weird backward hand wave thing. Life is strange.

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Connections

Featured in The 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards (2004)

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Soundtracks

Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night in the Week)
Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
Performed by The Oscar Peterson Trio
Courtesy of The Verve Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

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