David Lean’s collaboration with Katharine Hepburn would be described by the great director in later years as his favourite. Hepburn plays Jane Hudson, a secretary from middle-America fulfilling her lifelong dream of visiting Venice. With her loneliness accentuated in the presence of so much romance, Jane is susceptible to the advances of local antiquarian Renato (Rossano Brazzi), but a shadow is cast over the relationship by the discovery that she is merely his paramour. Shot entirely on location, this romantic comedy drama marked the beginning of Lean’s move to international filmmaking, and the end of his smaller, more personal work.

Notes by Kevin Coyne.

Screening as part of The Films of David Lean season.