“‘I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs:
A palace and a prison in each hand'
Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
“‘Send fresh instructions. Streets full of water.' Telegram from Robert Benchley....
“(In Summertime) David Lean gives us the Venice of the travel brochures: a city of enchantment, radiant beauty and, perhaps, a hint of sensuality. Into this fragile world comes American spinster Katharine Hepburn who promptly falls prey to handsome lothario Rossano Brazzi. The film has a distinct Jamesian quality in its clash of cultures and moral polarities, but Hepburn's experience is also typically Lean, as is the film's classic precision and visual luxuriance.... She is another of Lean's fantasists, searching for a romantic ideal, suffering guilt and settling, like Rosy Ryan (Ryan's Daughter) for something less....” Adrian Turner, National Film Theatre, London