The Garden of the Finzi-Continis . Nashville Scene . 12-08-97

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

DIRECTED BY: Vittorio de Sica

REVIEWED: 12-08-97

As lovely and brittle now as it was when it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film of 1971, this newly restored Vittorio de Sica classic deserves to be rediscovered in its latest video release. Set in pre-World War II Italy, the story revolves around a wealthy Jewish family living behind great stone walls on the main street of a village. The protagonist is Giorgio (Lino Capolicchio), a working-class youth dealing with his political awakening and with his romantic feelings for the remote, capricious Micol Finzi-Contini (the lovely Dominique Sanda, who looks as though she were carved into the marble walls of her character's lush estate). On one level, the film is a harsh critique of classism, particularly in the face of an evolving fascist state. On another, more engaging level, it's a film about longing--both for the unattainable things of the present and for the imagined stability of the past.

--Noel Murray

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