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Diane Lane Initially Didn't Understand Under The Tuscan Sun's Gut Punching Message

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Adapting a singular into a movie or TV show is at all times a little of a chance. While some be triumphant, such as Netflix's Sandman series, which is in keeping with the loved collection of graphic novels through Neil Gaiman, others, such as some of the works by Anne Rice have been misses.

Then there are video game adaptions, which almost never seem to work.

But every once in a while, a film or display breathes new existence into the current supply subject matter. This is indisputably the case with Audrey Wells' 2003 romantic comedy/drama, Under The Tuscan Sun.

The movie, which was once in accordance with Frances Mayes' novel of the identical identify, twists an already great story into one thing way more cinematic and in the long run emotional. There's without a doubt that Diane Lane is one among the primary reasons why.

In the film, Diane's Frances escapes to a crumbling property in Italy after learning her husband is having an affair. She is supported through her good friend, performed through Sandra Oh, and a litany of Italian men all vying for her attention. The film is captivating, there is no doubt. But it is usually injected with a pathos that lots of those that nurture a broken middle can relate to. But it took Diane having an epiphany to really understand that herself.

Why Diane Lane Didn't Understand Under The Tuscan Sun

In an interview by Vulture, Diane Lanemshared her nice affection for Under The Tuscan Sun as well as for its creator/director Audrey Wells, who tragically kicked the bucket in 2018.

"I remember meeting with Audrey for the first time, and she explained something to me that was like a lightbulb going off in my head. I didn’t realize this woman was going to become a treasured friend in my life and that lightbulbs going off over my head would be happening as a result of our interaction and her effect on me for as long as I could keep her in my life."

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Diane went on to say that Audrey's empowerment of her "cut through" her own self-doubt.

"When I said to her, 'I have to be completely honest with you. I read the script and I don’t see the humor. I know I’m flawed in my understanding here' — and she had to literally explain something that became so embarrassingly obvious to me in hindsight: All humor stems from pain. It’s the distance we get from that pain that allows us to laugh at ourselves, and what a healing thing that is."

Diane believes that one of the explanation why so many love the authentic e-book, which used to be written through Frances Mayes (who shares the identical identify as the character Diane performed), is how contemporary it is. But she credits Audrey Wells for putting the humor into it.

"Audrey took her internal wisdom and self-effacing humor and love of women (and herself as one), and the growth process of becoming mature versus immature — trusting yourself more — she inserted that into the book," Diane said.

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"Thematically, there was a similar thread: [The book] was written by a woman, and it was her journey, taking on a new life in Italy. But she was doing it with a husband! So the movie is Audrey inserting her journey and her learning curve of how to love again, from a broken heart. And it’s incredible. Because you go through each stage: doubt, horror, regret, feebleness. Everything. Your guts are on the floor. And let’s start from there. Where you’re slipping in your own viscera."

While being interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Diane shared that she used to be already emotionally equipped to play the function when it landed in her lap.

"I had started from scratch multiple times in my life at that point," Diane said to Vulture when requested about her comments.

"I had the bravery to uproot myself and move from New York City to California when I was 18; I moved to Georgia with a U-Haul after I felt my first earthquake. I was like, 'Bye, gotta go!' But I came crawling back to California, happily. But in Georgia for 20 years, being a tax-paying part-time resident there near my mother, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and said, 'I can do this.' I did Santa Fe, New Mexico. I reinvented myself in terms of pulling a geographic [relocation]."

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Diane concluded by means of saying, "It takes some stoicism. It takes some long-distance friends who reminded you what you were thinking, why this was a good idea. Finding humor in the cultural barriers — in our film’s case, it was the actual language, which makes it funnier — and bonding over poetry. It’s a great piece of Velcro. It’s very sticky. You can understand somebody if they have the appreciation of a poem that you share."

Ultimately, Under The Tuscan Sun proved to be a little bit of poetry that many enthusiasts understood.

"People would tell me they really appreciated and felt touched by [Under the Tuscan Sun]," Diane mentioned. "There was a knowing sense of, 'I vibed that. I vibed the awkwardness and triumph.' It was as though we’d read the same poem."

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Elina Uphoff

Update: 2024-06-07