A Man in Love 1987

Jane Steiner, Greta Scacchi, an English-born actress living in France with her mother Julia Steiner Claudia Cardinale and her father Harry Steiner John Berry, begins to rethink her unfulfilling career and considers turning to writing. During a trip to Rome with her journalist father, she lands a small part in an American film set in the 1950s, portraying Gabriella, Pavese’s lover. The lead role goes to Steve Elliott, Jamie Lee Curtis, a charismatic American who is deeply devoted to the writer he portrays, even though his own fame remains largely quiet in the United States. Steve is married to Susan Elliott Jamie Lee Curtis, who is back home in New York with their children and is quickly drawn to Jane on the set.

After Jane completes her portion, she moves into Steve’s rented villa on the outskirts of Rome, and the two of them embark on a torrid affair that draws them deeper into danger than they anticipated. The liaison nearly surfaces when Susan arrives unannounced with the children, but Steve’s close friend Michael Pozner Peter Riegert manages to slip Jane away before anyone else notices. Complications mount as Bruno Schlosser [Vincent Lindon] tracks Jane down to Rome and eventually leaks the affair to the press just as Steve finishes his work on the film.

Amid the escalating tension, Jane learns that her mother is terminally ill and may not have long to live unless she returns to France soon. The news weighs heavily on her choices, adding a bitter edge to the unfolding drama. In the end, Jane and Steve quietly end their romance because he cannot leave Susan or his family. Steve returns to America, while Jane returns to France to be at her mother’s side as she dies. After mourning her loss, Jane decides to embrace a future as a writer, and in the final scene she is shown drafting her very first book—a romance inspired by, and shaped by, the complicated turns of her relationship with Steve.