My House in Umbria

My House in Umbria is a 2003 HBO made-for-television movie, based on the novella of the same name by William Trevor and published along with another novella in the volume Two Lives. The film stars Maggie Smith and was directed by Richard Loncraine.

Cast

• Maggie Smith as Mrs. Emily Delahunty
• Chris Cooper as Thomas Riversmith
• Timothy Spall as Quinty
• Emmy Clarke as Aimee
• Ronnie Barker as The General
• Benno Fürmann as Werner
• Giancarlo Giannini as Inspector Girotti
• Libero De Rienzo as Dr. Innocenti

Plot

Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) is an eccentric British romance novelist who lives in Umbria in central Italy. One day while travelling, the train she is on is bombed by terrorists. After she wakes up in a hospital, she invites three of the other survivors of the disaster to stay at her Italian villa for recuperation. Of these are The General, a retired British Army veteran, Werner, a young German man, and Aimee, a young American girl who has now become mute after her parents were both killed in the explosion.

As the group recovers from their ordeal (in which The General lost his daughter, and Werner lost his girlfriend and suffered considerable burns to his arm), the explosion is being investigated by Inspector Girotti, a local policeman. Responding to the warmth and kindness of Mrs Delahunty and the others, Aimee begins to speak again, while the local authorities seek out any relatives who might be able to take her in. They eventually locate her uncle, Tom Riversmith, a...
Read More