Love in a hot climate for a young Ingrid Bergman

Giovanna Mezzogiorno had to age from 17 to 70 for the screen version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's prize-winning novel Love In The Time Of Cholera.

"We spent a month doing movement exercises so we moved convincingly according to our character's age," Giovanna told me.

The 32-year-old Romebased actress plays the central role of almond-eyed beauty Fermina Daza in the film about long-delayed love in Colombia.

She said it was such a cliche to see senior citizens on screen barely able to walk.

"Some 70-year-olds are quite sprightly - you'd be surprised at what they can do," she insisted.

Giovanna was also in the Oscar-nominated Italian movie Don't Tell, but she didn't expect that director Mike Newell would cast her opposite Javier Bardem and Benjamin Bratt (playing the two men in her life).

Two months after meeting Newell, however, she was on her way to Cartagena in Colombia.

Giovanna was in London with Bardem this week for post-production voice work.

Those who have seen early rough-cut versions of the film tell me Giovanna evoked qualities of a young Ingrid Bergman.

Well, I guess we'll see when the film gets its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in late August.

It's expected to open in the UK early next year, just in time for the Oscars.