Conversation Piece

Plot Summary

• A 60-ish American art collector and former scientist (the Professor) lives beautifully and alone in Rome but his life is radically disrupted when the wife of a rightist industralist, the Marchesa Brumonti, her young lover, Konrad, teen-aged daughter, Lietta and her daughter's boyfriend, Stefano lease the upper apartment of the luxurious palazzo he has inherited from his Italian mother. Against his judgment, the Professor becomes involved in the affairs of these distasteful strangers who begin to hold a strange fascination for him. The Marchesa is beautifully dressed and coiffed, but her behavior is loud and vulgar. Konrad describes a leftist activist past in contrast to his degenerate present which may involve drug dealing. Lietta and Stefano are sexually precocious, and they are all very stylish. They encroach more and more upon the Professor's privacy and thoughts until they become like the family he wants to disown but can't because they are his kin. The Professor's memories of his mother and wife intervene and his art collection and bedside reading hold clues to the violent psycho-drama that ensues. The sumptuous interiors are ravishing.

Storyline

• A retired American professor lives a solitary life in a luxurious palazzo in Rome when he is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa and her companions (her lover, her daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend) and forced to rent them an apartment on the upper floor of his palazzo. From this point his tenants' machinations turn his quiet routine into chaos and everybody's lives take unexpected but inevitable turns. — Alex Asp