The Battle of the Villa Fiorita

An English mother leaves her husband and two children to follow her Italian lover to a lakeside villa. Her children follow her, intent on breaking up her affair. In Italy, two children, Michael (Martin Stephens) and Debbie (Elizabeth Dear), are aware that their mother, Moira (Maureen O'Hara), has left them for a lover, a famous Italian composer, and they are staying at the Villa Fiorita. Michael convinces Debbie to run away to the Villa to fetch their mother, and forces her to sell her prized pony to afford the journey. They arrive, and the lover, Lorenzo (Rossano Brazzi), calls their father (Richard Todd) to inform him that the children have run away and that he will be sending them home. However, Michael falls ill and Lorenzo allows them both to stay. Debbie joins forces with Donna (Olivia Hussey), the daughter of their mother's lover, to manipulate Moira into returning to Britain. A hunger strike by the girls ensues which fails and culminates in Moira slapping Debbie and Lorenzo spanking Donna. Lorenzo finally decides to send the children home but Michael and Donna attempt to run away on a sailboat during a storm. After the two nearly drown, Moira and Lorenzo agree that they have lost the battle, and a heartbroken Moira returns to England with her children. Based on the same-titled novel by Rumer Godden, this story centers around Moira Clavering, a British homemaker who falls in love with a visiting Italian pianist Lorenzo Tasara. Moira leaves her neglectful husband and two children and moves to Italy to start a life with Lorenzo. Her two children journey to their mother's new home, the Villa Fiorita, where they team up with Lorenzo's daughter to try to break up the couple. —Edward Schiller <eschiller@ixc-comm.com>