non-romance romance, #9: Summertime (1955, dir. David Lean)

eat the ravioli

I’ve opened up the paid subscription option for Restorative Romance and for now, Non-Romance Romance, the monthly series where I talk about art that is not typically classed as romances with romance as a framework, will be the paid content. Most of my stuff will continue to be free! My favorite stuff to write here are big projects (like the Dukes!) that look at many romance novels together—I never want to rush a project like that or skimp on the research.

But because of Substack’s monthly charge model, I wanted any paid content to be consistent. I have no shortage of takes that involve looking at something that is not a romance novel as if it were one (And if you’re ever dying to read a NRR take—email me and I forward you that newsletter, gratis!) Thank you for your support and for reading!! Dukes will return next week.

Summertime (1955, dir. David Lean) might be my hardest sell so far as a non-romance romance because I think in contemporary genre notions it is the closest to women’s fiction. And women’s fiction is often really closely aligned with romance, but an aggressive firewall between the two is very important to some readers and authors. When I call a Summertime a romance novel, with its central love story, but lack of “happy ending,” I get very near the line that separates “speaking metaphorically” and “just being wrong.” 

But I’m going to try my best to explain what I mean. 

kiss me hard before you go

In Summertime, Jane Hudson (played by Katharine Hepburn) is a secretary from Akron, Ohio. She has saved for years and now finally she is visiting the city of her dreams, Venice. She is on a tight budget. While other travelers she meets report their long itineraries or regale their bohemian lifestyles, she has come to Europe for one thing: Venice and all its romantic promise. She is not assuming that she will have a love affair though. Jane gets along with everyone, but thinks affairs of the heart are for young people. Romance is not For Her.

In the opening scene, pictured above, Jane hands a stranger a copy of a travel brochure titled “Venice: City of Romance” and films him on her super 8 camera. It’s very on the nose exposition that I’m weak for: Jane is a voyeur of both Italy and it’s romance. She is not in the storytelling frame of her own creation, but she is the director of the scenes we are about to see.

One night while eating alone in the piazza, she notices a man eating alone looking at her. He is the very handsome Renato di Rossi (played by very handsome Rossano Brazzi). Jane is overwhelmed by the threat or promise of his attention and scurries away. Later while antique shopping, she sees a ruby red glass goblet in the window of a shop and goes inside to purchase it. Renato is the shop owner and he tells her it is from the 18th century. He offers to be on the look out for a matching goblet so that she can have a pair. Between his hushed tones and held glances, and Lean’s tight close-ups, Renato’s interest in Jane is as clear as Jane’s anxiety about his interest.

Later while eating in the same piazza alone, Jane tips the chair across from her inward, as ot indicate to passerbys, including her pensione acquaintances, that she is not actually alone. But when Renato passes her and greets her, he receives the same message: that she is not available for connection and excuses himself. Jane, fearful of appearing to be alone, has doomed herself to loneliness for the evening.