Under the Tuscan Sun
 

I know that new movie with Diane Lane, Under the Tuscan Sun, is set in Italy but I was wondering if anyone knew anything about the series of books it was based on. The story line has a lot to do with traveling, the culture of Italy and Italian cooking. Just curious. thanks!

Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy
by Frances Mayes.
Other than that, no idea!
Try Amazon.

Note that the film is based LOOSELY on the book. They've changed just about everything except the fact that an American woman buys an old house in Tuscany and fixes it up.

Marilyn has it right. I loved the book but the movie previews I have seen do not look too parallel/familiar! I can't wait to see it anyway, just to see Tuscany again! :)

I heard that in the movie she goes to Tuscany by herself and she fell in love with a Good LOOKING, Italian Stallion...

kismet, that's sure what it looks like from the trailers. Well, I'll go see anything set in Tuscany, that's for sure.

From what I've seen of the trailers, much of it is apparently set in Positano and Rome.

Happened to catch a preview yesterday on HGTV. Even the short clip was decidedly different than the book, and it sure didn't make me want to add it to my "must see" list.

I just read a review of the movie and apparently the title is the only thing in common with the book. Frances Mayes did write two books and a photo book which is beatiful. Under the Tuscan Sun (which chronicles the purchasing and rebuilding of her home with her now husband), Bella Tuscany (which describes her travels throughout Tuscany, Venice and Sicily-my favorite fwiw) and In Tuscany (which focuses more on recipes and photos.

Thanks for the warning on this film. I suppose the personal life of a middle-aged, upper middle class working divorcee who'd already hooked up with an American poet as her soulmate before coming to Italy, as depicted in the Mayes books, wasn't hot enough for Hollywood. No raunchy night life, etc. So they changed it all.....but decided to keep the title to mislead anyone who'd read the books.....

I guess I'm one who cares little about whether a movie is an exact duplicate of a book. Rarely does a book make a good movie when followed exactly -- first because it is far too detailed. Can you read the entire book in an hour and a half or two hours?

Many movies are not based on books and are still entertaining. Why not forget about the book and go to see a movie for its own sake, rather than trying to insist it be a match of the story of the book???

Patrick, Actually, I agree with you. I'm really just objecting to the use of the book's title as far too misleading based on comments of what the film is about. I don't mind "loose" adaptations of books. But, this one sounds a bit too loose. Should come with a disclaimer! Or, a change in title. So it can succeed or fail on its own merits.

Agreed that it will succeed or fail on its own merits, but there are many films that did not follow the book and the result was even better. Has anyone read Forest Gump? You'd never imagine that the film could be so good.

Granted I liked Frances Mayes books (and when seeing the preview it made me reallize why Peter Mayle probably has refused film opportunities!). But I thought even her books could use a little "umph". While the movie may go overboard, it might turn out to be a real winner.

I have a movie based on Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence, done on four tapes, one for each season. It's described as "an A&E Home Movie." Don't think it ever hit the theaters, probably just TV. In any case, with John Thaw (whom I love; so sorry we lost him so young) as Peter Mayle how could they go wrong? Follows the book well IMO.

Using a book title for a movie if it is totally a different story makes no sense to me. Write a new plot and name it whatever you wish, but for heavens sake if you make a movie based on a book, let it be that. Again just MO.

I recently finished "Under the Tuscan Sun" and will start "Bella Tuscany" when I complete another project.

In the book, the author is happily married to another American (both from SF/Bay Area) and they seek and find a deserted farmhouse which they purchase and renovate, living there in the summers only.

Quite an amusing take on the Italian method of doing business, with plumbers, bankers, electricians, farmers/gardeners and wall builders figuring prominently.

Lots of yummy recipes and tales of beauty during frustrations.

Few or no Italian stallions.

But I'll see the movie even if it is diametrically opposite of the "sweet married couple" book.

In order to appeal to that all-important younger demographic, I'd read that the studio considered changing the name of the movie to <i>Dude, Where's My Chianti?</i>

No, Capo, it would have to be &quot;Dude, Who Stole My Fiat Uno?&quot;!!!!

BC

I saw that 4-hr movie series about the Peter Mayle book, I think it was produced by BBC. Peter Mayle is not about to turn down any money for anything IMO. It didn't grab me that much, but neither did his books as I don't care for his writing or general ideas.

Not to sound shallow but my husband was way more excited about seeing the movie once he saw Diane Lane was playing Frances Mayes-talk about a stretch!

I rather liked the tv series based on A Year in Provence -- liked it better than the books actually.

Very funny, capo and bookchick!

Koshka, I'll be seeing the movie also, unless the little man has left his chair. (Sorry, non-Bay-Area-residents. That's an inside reference for those who read the SF Chronicle.)

He'll probably fall asleep in his chair, but who cares as long as the chair is in Tuscany!

The movie is enough different from the book, that they post a notice in the credits that it is a fictionalization of the book.

The Italian cooking still appears in the movie. Don't go hungry:-)

Keith

How on earth did I miss the Year in Provence series?! We're frequent watchers of A&amp;E too. I'll have to search for it.

Perhaps since the previews show Diane Lane doing home improvement on an Italian home, there is enough similarity from the book to pass the title police.

hlphillips2: I bought my tapes of A Year in Provence at amazon.com. Thought I would pass it on in case you are interested in purchasing them. I have no idea when they originally ran on TV, but preferred having them so I could watch them whenever I wish, rather than waiting and hoping they might do reruns on PBS/A&amp;E.

Koshka: In your reply you said:
&quot;In the book, the author is happily married to another American (both from SF/Bay Area)...&quot;

Have you finished Bella Tuscany yet? Didn't you love the &quot;surprise&quot; wedding at the end?! One of my favorite scenes from the books.

As for the movie, I saw it last night on DVD. It was a cute romantic comedy, involving a somewhat ditzy American and a succession of love affairs and heartbreaks. I enjoyed it, in the same sense I enjoyed &quot;You've Got Mail&quot;...with some incredible scenery thrown in.

But the books were the narrative of a love affair with Tuscany itself...its culture, the house and its surrounding land. It seems to me they could have made a good movie...somewhat in the vein of &quot;Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse&quot; and &quot;Baby Boom&quot;. The books certainly contained a enough anecdotes: funny, heartbreaking, insightful, artistic...to fill up the screen for 80 minutes. What a shame to have left out the moment they discovered the murals on the dining room walls, covered by years of whitewash...the ancient Etruscan road leading to town...and the &quot;Madonna of the Cat Hole&quot;. And the surprise at the end of Bella Tuscany could have been dynamite on the screen.

I just never understood the necessity of leaving out the real romance portrayed in the books. I wonder if A&amp;E or Masterpiece Theater will eventually take these books and do them justice on film.

The movie , despite that was very different from the book, was very entertaining, I really enjoyed it..
The book, at times was a little boring...

I did not care about A Year in Provence, I haven't see the tv series...
But I believe that the author exagerated his troubles with the workers..
I go to Provence every time that I travel to Europe..My first cousin lives there,and i have spent many summers at her house as a teen..

I never saw workers acting that way..My cousin and the people that I knew, never had any problems with them either..

Me, too. I was sadly disappointed in &quot;Provence&quot;. His fiction novels are light and funny, however, in the P.G. Wodehouse vein. &quot;Hotel Pastis&quot; was hysterical.

I realized after posting that, with the movies I listed, I'd left the impression I thought &quot;..Tuscan Sun&quot; was rightly treated as a comedy. Not so. Humor, yes. But I would like to have seen something more along the lines of &quot;Chocolat&quot; with gorgeous, sensuous street scenes and beautiful food, architecture and art...kind of &quot;Ivory and Merchant&quot; buy a house in Italy!

I just watched this movie for the first time tonight, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Italy is so gorgeous............ (and I think Diane Lane is terrific.) I also loved &quot;A Year In Provence,&quot; watched it when it was originally shown. Have not read the books. So I had nothing to compare/ criticize. Just take them as they are......... and totally enjoyed them.

Bonnie, I agree with you. I always think of it as a differnt book. For instance, the Year in Provence is miscast. John Law is Terrible as Mayle, tho wonderful as &quot;Morse&quot; and the acTress, forget her name, is always gooD but played Mayle's wife as an iritATING BITICH.

&quot;Inspector Morse&quot; is one of my favorite series EVER........ love John Law in that. He is a terrific actor, I think. Also totally enjoyed &quot;Cracker&quot;........

I am sad to say that John Law died about a year or so ago.
And yes, Inspector Morse was the best!

I loved Robbie Coltrane in Cracker, wish they would make some more, but since he is a Harry Potter actor now, guess tv is not so important~

That should be JOHN THAW :)

Scarlett, you are right about John Thaw, of course. Should have said &quot;was&quot;...... I am going to buy that whole &quot;Inspector Morse&quot; series for my home library! Robbie Coltrane is a terrific actor, and I do hope we'll see him in a &quot;Cracker&quot; again, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks, Scarlet, I mispelled his name. I paid 90 dollors for the vids, year in Provence, I'll sell them to anyone who wants them for a third of the price.

just a bit of trivia for the true fodorite on the board. My cousin Giulia bernardini is a prominently featured extra on the bus scene right next to Diane Lane and also mentionned several times as the most excellent private guide that she is in Rome!

My daughter gave &quot;Under the Tuscan Sun&quot; to my mother as a Christmas present in 1999. Mom read 20 pages and HATED it....&quot;no plot&quot;, she said. I picked it up and read it straight through, finishing it on a Sat. morning at 11 am, picked it up that afternoon at 1 pm and read it again! It became (next to Cinque Terre) my primary reason for going to Italy last fall. Though Mayes develops some contortionist sentence construction so convoluted I had to re-read a number of passages mutiple times and STILL could not quite grasp what she was TRYING to say (and she's a literary professor at SF State???) I was completely enamoured of the picture she paints of Italy.

We spent 3 days in Cortona as part of a 23 day trip and thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually FOUND Bramisole (the house) on my own at the end of the 3rd day...well...in truth, through the help of an elderly man whom I met walking down this wonderful old tree-canopied parkway after having admitted defeat and was on my way back to the hotel. It turned out he was the retired head of the Univ. of Georgia's language &amp; tech center, interestingly located at Cortona, and, even more interestingly, partially funded by Apple Computer. Needless to say he was more than quite excited to find I was the person at Apple who delivered their funding.

In any event, the movie, I'm sad to say, excepting certain parts like the Polish stone-cutters, the scene of the Greek-cross church in Cortona and the steaming toilet, had absolutely NOTHING to do with the book. Hollywood. * sneers looking southward *

I have not seen the movie but attempted to read the book for a book club and could not get through it ... I guess I prefer straight fiction to this. Also I have not been to Italy and am not a big cook so I couldn't get swept away in some of the details. I am planning to read it again when I get back from Italy in late October and see if my opinion of the book changes.

After reading this book I could not wait to read Bella Tuscany and (be still my heart) In Tuscany I could see pictures of the renovated villa and grounds. I recommended it to all my friends who also fell in love with the books and some were fortunate enough to actually rent a villa in Cortona near Bramasol. The film was a great disappointment and except for renovating a villa in Tuscany
had nothing vaguely familiar to the book.

<i>We spent 3 days in Cortona as part of a 23 day trip and thoroughly enjoyed it.</i>

Ramblero, I understand. We chose to visit Cortona, aside from the Mayes' connection, a few years ago. While we were only going to spend a few hours there, before continuing on to Arezzo, we ended up enjoying it so much that we stayed the entire afternoon, until the evening passeggiata.

I don't know if you recall it, but a statue I found rather moving was at the tip of the public gardens. It was an angel cradling a dead soldier.

Capo..yes...I remember it now.....and I recall I was struck with how unfathomably, poignantly sad it was...