(1996; English, Italian) Art and atmospherics and sex fill director Bernardo Bertolucci's cinematic canvas (Susan Minot's screenplay from his story) with the arrival of 19-year-old Lucy Harmon (Liv Tyler) in Sienna by train on her way to the Tuscany art colony of Ian (Donal McCann) and Diana (Sinead Cusack).

Back after four years with her father in the States, Lucy returns to where her deceased mother Sarah had been the resident poet. Ian, a sculptor who creates his works from large pieces of wood, begins studies of Lucy for a portraiture. Diana has two children - Miranda (Rachel Weisz), who has invited her American boyfriend Richard Reid (D.W. Moffett) to spend the summer with her, and Christopher (Joseph Fiennes) - before her divorce 20 years earlier and eight-year-old Daisy with Ian.

Also in residence is playwright Alex Parrish (Jeremy Irons), slowly dying of cancer, who tells the virgin beauty: "You're in need of a ravisher." During her previous sojourn Lucy had received her first kiss from Niccolo' Donati (Roberto Zibetti), a neighbor who with his brother Osvaldo (Ignacio Oliva) comes over with Christopher to enjoy the summer festivities.

An elderly French art dealer, M. Guillaume, and Noemi - who becomes the object of war correspondent ("the Marquis de Saab") Carlo Lisca's son Michele's attentions - are also in the colony. Carlo, who had tossed Lucy a video cassette from the train of his photographing her, had written her mother some letters.

Along with writing her own short verses, Lucy reads from her mother's final poems, in particular one that speaks of green sandals, a viper killed in the orchard, eating an olive leaf: "Only one night together." In addition to seeking for herself a romantic occasion, she begins a quest to discover the identity of her real father. Unlike most on-camera couplings, Lucy's first coitus, after rejecting others' overtures, is depicted honestly.

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