ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE, THE

Youth, beauty, and career become a thing of the past for a vulnerable woman at the crossroads of her life.

Aware of every wrinkle, every grey hair, and every bad review, recently widowed Broadway star Karen Stone (Golden Globe and Emmy winner Helen Mirren, Gosford Park) abandons her profession in favour of a new life in Rome. Welcomed into a select circle of new friends, she meets the Contessa (Golden Globe, Emmy, and Oscar winner Anne Bancroft, The Graduate), who offers Mrs. Stone a fresh lease on life via the young and handsome Paolo (Oliver Martinez, Unfaithful). As slick as a designer silk tie, Paolo is just one of the Contessa’s stable of Italian studs whose affection can only be afforded by the wealthiest of lonely women. As procured diversions go, Paolo delivers. While realistic about his motives, Mrs. Stone soon succumbs to his well-rehearsed charms and falls hopelessly in love.

As the relationship between Paolo and Mrs. Stone develops, Paolo and the Contessa become more and more demanding. Mrs. Stone may be consumed with Paolo, but the arrangement isn’t paying off as successfully as they’d hoped. Calculating and frustrated, Paolo threatens to move on to younger and wealthier women and gives Mrs. Stone an ultimatum. Humiliated for inviting—and paying for—his cruelty, the fragile Mrs. Stone regains what’s left of her pride and drives Paolo away to save herself from destruction. But a new temptation has stepped out from the shadows of the Via Veneto, where the inevitable fate of Mrs. Stone awaits.

Emmy nominee Robert Allan Ackerman (Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows) directs a powerhouse cast in this adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ haunting novella.