Starring: Dominique Sanda, Lino Capolicchio, Helmut Berger and Romolo Valli
Directed by: Vittorio de Sica
The Garden of the Finzi-Contini revolves around a wealthy Jewish-Italian family who use the spectacular gardens surrounding their mansion as a barrier between their pampered, isolated world and the political turbulance being experienced in late 1930's Italy as Mussolini takes power and anti-Jewish sentiment spreads.
The lead performances are outstanding. Dominique Sanda is drop-dead gorgeous and perfectly blends the ignorant, spoiled, but charming qualities that are essential to make the pivitol role of Micol Finzi-Contini work, and Lino Capolichhio is the middle-class boy who has adored her from a distance since childhood and is spurned by Micol during the course of the film. He's the emotional heart of the film, and provides a wounded, vulnerable angle to the film as we watch his heart shatter as the world around him crumbles, giving the whole movie an unexpected poignancy.
The Garden of the Finzi-Contini is also one of the most beautiful color films I've ever had the opportunity seeing. For some reason, it reminded me of the visuals at Picnic at Hanging Rock, another 1970's masterpiece that had a similar effect on me. Finzi-Contini has the same sunlight-filled, slightly gauzy, bright but slightly muted color scheme that I liked so much in Pincic at Hanging Rock. From the opening shot of a group of teenagers in stark traditional tennis whites riding their bikes through lush, green gardens, to the interiors of the Finzi-Contini mansion, cinematographer Ennio Guarnieri makes the film look appropriately delicate, and almost dreamlike, effectively making it seem like the world we're watching has the potential to dissapear in a second, and portraying the fact the days of the Finzi-Continis are long since gone. In her review in 2001 Nights at the Movies, Pauline Kael describes the film as "melancholy glamorous," and I can't think of a better and more fitting way to describe this film in both style and tone.
It's a far cry from the hard-edged realism and gritty black and white films of de Sica's roots, but in my opinion The Garden of the Finzi-Contini reaches the same heights of those earlier, more famous films. Restored in 1996 by Sony Pictures Classics, Finzi-Contini looks amazing on DVD. Thank goodness. Such a beautiful film deserves to be seen with the best conditions possible.
(Black and White, In Italian)
-June 12, 2003
