When in Rome – the Fountain of Love

This movie is a remake of the 1954 film Three Coins in the Fountain. In fact, the screenplay for The Fountain of Love was written by David Diamond and David Weissman who were inspired by the 1950s movie. The fountain of love was released in theaters in 2010 and was directed by director Mark Steven Johnson.

The plot centers on the protagonist named Beth, an unlucky girl in love. The young woman goes to Rome to participate in her sister’s sudden wedding. While in the Eternal City, after a particular and disappointing meeting with Nick, he decides to take coins from an elusive “fountain of love” to which a historical legend is linked. From this moment on, the lives of Beth and Nick will continue to intertwine. Among the actors of the cast of The Fountain of Love there are: Kristen Bell (Beth Harper), Josh Duhamel (Nick Beamon), Dax Shepard (Gale), Alexis Dziena (Joan Harper), Danny DeVito (Al).

In Rome there are no fountains with Venus because during past centuries the patrons were the popes. For the film we needed a fountain with the goddess Venus and so we made it on this purpose. First as sketch and then in monumental dimensions. The story of the film left no alternatives: it was therefore necessary to build it, the fountain, and we made it completely in fiberglass. Its author, the set designer Stefano Maria Ortolani, was inspired by a model by Giambologna from the Boboli Gardens in Florence.

“When the statue was ready” “Ortolani says amused” “Disney asked us to cover the only part of the body of Venus discovered, the breast, with a cloth”.

The choice of location was rather complicated, in the end Piazza Fontanella Borghese was chosen, and the locals did not agree to have a film set near their house. 

We at FeliceCalchi worked hard to make the fountain in monumental dimensions. hundreds of kilos of fibrglass were used, but it was so exciting to build an ‘historic’ fountain in the heart of Rome. At the end of the filming sets, roman people complimented us on how it was handled and then they asked us not to dismantle the fountain, because it had become a beautiful scenographic element of the square, they also made a petition to the city hall to keep the fountain in the piazza. Obviously it was not possible to please them, because the material we used to make the fountain was useful only for the duration of the filming shots.

I remember that the fountain looked so perfect and realistic in the context of the Piazza Borghese, that many tourists looked for it on the guides, and the stage crew had to explain that it was just a scenic element that would be removed as soon as filming was finished.

Today the story of the Fountain of Love is already popular folklore and all that remains of this curious story is the precious Original Sketch  present in our collection and available at this LINK for movie memorabilia collectors and all passionate lovers of the beauties of the Eternal City even those only imagined.