The Diary Game 02/04/2022 - Mrs. Stone's Spring in Rome.

alein (70)memberin Italy • 3 years ago

It's hard to forget the screenplays or stagings of Tennessee Williams' plays, and not just because of the memorable cast (at least in the case of the movies), but especially because of the intense dialogue, tragic characters, memorable lines, explosive conversational tensions.

Whether we are talking about the Cat on the Hot Roof or A Streetcar Named Desire (if I may mention two of the most famous works by the American writer), these are two forays into the psychology of characters in which even the reader or viewer of the 21st century can find universal themes.

In the same vein, the explorations of comfortable appearances, which hide a lot of suffering and a lot of drama, ready to come out, are also the first novel signed by Tennessee Williams also screened in the 60s, starring Vivien Leigh, an actress who shared, at the time, part of the condition of Williams' protagonist.

Mrs. Stone's Spring in Rome is a micro-novel projected in post-war Rome, a micro-novel that brings to the attention of Karen Stone, a wealthy former middle-aged actress who has to deal with three sources of weakness: widowhood, late career, the onset of menopause.

Apparently, Mrs. Stone has a comfortable life: she is independent, she has a huge fortune left by her husband, she is a lover of luxury, she is ubiquitous and known in the fashionable society of Rome, at events that involve all kinds of important figures, opulence and culture. .

However, Mrs. Stone's position and concerns, including her decision to stay in Rome, hide a deafening discomfort, an effort to adapt to a new life with which the protagonist is not so accustomed: a life away from the stage, a life in which loneliness and difficulty the acceptance of aging, the renunciation of former glory cannot be confronted head-on, but must be filtered or masked by a lifestyle that protects it from the awareness of the contrast between past and present.

It is no wonder that a well-known star of the scene and a familiar figure in social circles, even from overseas, end up being courted by various ambitious young people who are eager to succeed (after all, adventurers willing to console widows rich, especially in a potential Italian city, are not few in number and are in fact guided, even by a few members of the high class who have reached the poverty line).

Among them, Paolo, a handsome dandy, a little arrogant, what the Italians call a marchetta (meaning, in short, an unscrupulous gigolo), pedantic and willing to heroically adjust his biography, depending on the context, puts his eyes on Mrs. Stone, under the careful guidance of the Countess (a cunning facilitator of such arrangements).

Although she is not so naive as to not suspect Paolo of opportunistic interests, Mrs. Stone slowly accepts his advances. Surprised and provoked by Mrs. Stone's slowness and self-control, Paolo becomes more insistent or, perhaps, begins to fall in love at least a little with the one who puts up some resistance and does not allow himself to be easily conquered.

Reflecting on her own evolution and the difficulties of the present, Mrs. Stone unravels, in moments of intimacy, the deceptive veil of the mythology of the past: her relationship with her rich husband was not a bright one (even if she had traveled around the world and luxurious events) her brilliant career was not necessarily based on an extraordinary talent (which could last, however, even in old age), but rather on the beauty that is now just a faint memory.

The specter of honesty, beyond the indulgent hypocrisies of others (often hiding envy and malice) projected on the present and especially on the past, for a character who did not rise to the romantic demands of the profession and her lifestyle, that of he dies young, but it is far too oppressive. The only thing Mrs. Stone doesn't seem to have lost is her dignity, which she manages to camouflage her vulnerabilities with mastery.

Will this last refuge withstand a fallen existence, polished on the outside but fragmented and exasperating on the inside? Will Mrs. Stone resist or give in to Paolo's charms?

On the other hand, Paolo is really moved, in love with this resistance of his mistress twice as old as him, with a glorious past and an echo of beauty that has not yet been lost or is only very well calculated in the endeavors its?