My House in Umbria

My House in Umbria
Directed by	Richard Loncraine
Produced by	Robert Allan Ackerman
Written by	William Trevor (original novel) Hugh Whitemore (screenplay)
Starring	Maggie Smith Ronnie Barker Chris Cooper Timothy Spall Giancarlo Giannini Benno Fürmann
Music by	Claudio Capponi
Cinematography	Marco Pontecorvo
Editing by	Humphrey Dixon
Distributed by	Home Box Office
Release date(s)	2003
Running time	109 min
Language	English

My House in Umbria is a 2003 HBO made-for-television movie, based on the novella of the same name by William Trevor and published along with another novella in the volume Two Lives. The film stars Maggie Smith and was directed by Richard Loncraine.

Cast

• Maggie Smith as Mrs. Emily Delahunty
• Chris Cooper as Thomas Riversmith
• Timothy Spall as Quinty
• Emmy Clarke as Aimee
• Ronnie Barker as The General
• Benno Fürmann as Werner
• Giancarlo Giannini as Inspector Girotti
• Libero De Rienzo as Dr. Innocenti

Plot

Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) is an eccentric British romance novelist who lives in Umbria in central Italy. One day while travelling, the train she is on is bombed by terrorists. After she wakes up in a hospital, she invites three of the other survivors of the disaster to stay at her Italian villa for recuperation. Of these are The General, a retired British Army veteran, Werner, a young German man, and Aimee, a young American girl who has now become mute after her parents were both killed in the explosion.

As the group recovers from their ordeal (in which The General lost his daughter, and Werner lost his girlfriend and suffered considerable burns to his arm), the explosion is being investigated by Inspector Girotti, a local policeman. Responding to the warmth and kindness of Mrs Delahunty and the others, Aimee begins to speak again, while the local authorities seek out any relatives who might be able to take her in. They eventually locate her uncle, Tom Riversmith, a university professor in the US. He agrees to take Aimee back to the US to live with his wife and himself, though they have little time for raising children and are particularly concerned about trying to raise a child who has been through such a traumatic experience as well as the Professor who had no experience raising children.

Mrs Delahunty works hard to find common ground with Aimee's uncle and eventually convinces him to leave Aimee with her in Italy rather than taking the child back to America to a loveless home. Meanwhile, Inspector Girotti discovers that Werner was involved in the terrorist attack on the train.

The plot departs substantially from that of Trevor's somber novella.

Production

• Much of the film was made on location in Italy, including Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Siena, and Tuscany.

Awards

• Emmy Awards
  • Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (Smith, won)
  • Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (Cooper, nominated)
  • Outstanding Made for Television Movie (nominated)
  • Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special (nominated)
  • Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (nominated)
  • Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (nominated)
  • Outstanding Costumes for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (nominated)
  • Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special (nominated)
  • Outstanding Hairstyling for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (nominated)

1 win, 9 nominations

• Golden Globes
  • Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (nominated)
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television (Smith, nominated)

2 nominations

External links

• My House in Umbria at the Internet Movie Database