Write about a language professor who has to teach their new young lover how to speak the same language as them.
This sounds like it would be a classic film from the 40s of 50s and I love it. Set it in Europe. Italy maybe. (It’s an American film though).
The language professor is a recent widower who’s taken a sabbatical in order to cope with his grief after his wife’s passing. He’s travelling with his chronic bachelor and free spirit best friend.
The young lover is a bright girl of ambiguous age, somewhere between 19 and 23. She lives under the thumb of a tyrannical father, but she dreams of getting away, travelling the world and having a great love afair.
The best friend is the one who initially meets her, in an outdoor cafe (the film set is full to bursting with bright pastel flowers). The best friend doesn’t speak the language, and there’s a misunderstanding between them, that’s only cleared up when the widower arrives at an opportune moment.
The girl realizes that the windower speaks both Italian and English, and realizes that if she learns English, she’ll be able to study in America. She uses her wiles to keep getting the widower’s attention.
Most of the movie is just a dreamy romantic comedy, the main conflict being avoiding the girl’s father finding out she’s with a man. In the third act, the windower is struggling with feeling used, because he finds out the girl has only been paying attention to him in order to learn English. But of course by that time they’ve both caught feelings.
The two have a fight, and it looks like the movie will end with the two saying goodbye as the windower and his best friend are getting ready to leave for the next leg of their European tour.
But the girl has stowed away in the back of their car, because she’s fallen in love!
It ends with a kiss while the best friend is driving and looking both amused and annoyed.
I think it should be a musical.
