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Light in the Piazza

Play trailer Poster for Light in the Piazza 1962 1h 41m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 3 Reviews 79% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Meg Johnson (Olivia de Havilland) is very protective of her daughter, Clara (Yvette Mimieux), a gorgeous young woman who suffers from a mental disability. While on vacation in Italy, Clara meets the dashing Fabrizio Naccarelli (George Hamilton), who is immediately smitten with her and doesn't initially grasp the extent of her developmental handicap. Though Meg is wary of letting Clara fall into a romance with Fabrizio, she realizes that he may be able to give the girl a better life.
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Light in the Piazza

Critics Reviews

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Janet Graves Photoplay 11/18/2020
Delicate handling and the mellow settings of Florence give this unusual story an air of tender romance you'd hardly expect from the subject. Go to Full Review
Isabel Quigly The Spectator 11/05/2019
I must confess to an almost insuperable pre- judice after seeing the film's trailer and realising that a gay, romantic story with a happy ending had been made out of a situation as ghoulish as this one seemed to be. Go to Full Review
Clyde Gilmour Maclean's Magazine 11/05/2019
Soap-operatic in theme but elegant in style... Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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12/21/2014 Set in the beautiful, enchanting city of Florence, Italy, a mother tries to cope with her child like grown daughter and the Italian man who falls for her daughter. Olivia de Havilland and Yvette Mimieux are splendid in this film. But George Hamilton is completely wrong as the young Italian man who falls for the simple daughter. See more 05/12/2013 Great movie. In the end I wondered if Fabrizio had something similarly wrong with him like Cara does. His father tells him not to tell her he is really 23 and his father did all the arranging of the marriage and he acts childish too, even eating the flower in the final scene. In the end, the mother never did tell the Naccarelli's something is wrong with Clara and she made a great decision. See more 12/17/2012 This is a feel-good movie. A delightful way to spend a couple of hours. See more 12/08/2012 Unusual soaper about mother, de Havilland, trying to marry off her beautiful brain damaged daughter, Yvette Mimieux. There's gorgeous photography and Olivia de Havilland is good, giving an honest performance in what could easily have been a very silly so-bad-it's-good kind of film. See more Frances H 08/08/2012 Wonderfully warm human drama from a marvelous book with a luminous performance by Yvette Mimieux, See more 07/19/2011 Clara(Yvette Mimieux) is mildly Mentally Challenged, exceptionally Beautiful,& becoming Highly Sexually Aware as she becomes a handful on a European Vacay with her Wealthy Mother(Olivia de Havilland).Clara is extremely popular with the European Men, & she finds the attention New & Exciting, but ohhhhh, what a challenge that turns out to be for her Prissy Momma.A Very Stunning Film See more Read all reviews
Light in the Piazza

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Movie Info

Synopsis Meg Johnson (Olivia de Havilland) is very protective of her daughter, Clara (Yvette Mimieux), a gorgeous young woman who suffers from a mental disability. While on vacation in Italy, Clara meets the dashing Fabrizio Naccarelli (George Hamilton), who is immediately smitten with her and doesn't initially grasp the extent of her developmental handicap. Though Meg is wary of letting Clara fall into a romance with Fabrizio, she realizes that he may be able to give the girl a better life.
Director
Guy Green
Producer
Arthur Freed
Screenwriter
Julius J. Epstein
Production Co
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jan 31, 1962, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 1, 2012
Runtime
1h 41m
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