"Tea with Mussolini" (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)
D Lewis
"Tea with Mussolini")
Those who are looking for a visual treat should check out "Tea With
Mussolini." It's beautiful to watch...if a theater paired it with "Midsummer
Night's Dream," the audience would probably overdose from all the eye candy.
There were a few things in the script of "Tea With Mussolini" that I found
slightly baffling...though not enough to affect my enjoyment of the movie.
1) What would you guess is Joan Plowright's age? In "Tea With Mussolini,"
wouldn't you venture she's in her 60s? Yet she shows the young boy a picture
of a British soldier who appears to be in his 20s and tells the lad she was
engaged to marry him but he died in "the Great War." But "the Great War"
was fought only about 17 years before the scene at the table supposedly
occurs. She had managed to snag a 28-year-old soldier when she was in her
late 40s? Well, good for her.
2) If Cher's character had already placed all her property in the name of
the giggolo, why did he need to kill her in order to take possession? (Not
to mention that the Gestapo just happened to be conveniently slow about
coming around to pick her up. And what was the Gestapo's reaction when they
found out she had been spirited away? Apparently not angry enough to force
any retribution on her female companions.)
3) And I thought it fortunate that "the humane Nazis" were stationed in that
town. It seems rather optimistic for the women to think that, amid all the
carnage inflicted in WW II, the Nazis would abandon their plan to dynamite
towers simply because a few women wrapped themselves in the cord at the base
of the towers.
Len Freedman
: (The following contains a minor and possibly a major spoiler about
: "Tea with Mussolini")
:
: Those who are looking for a visual treat should check out "Tea With
: Mussolini." It's beautiful to watch...if a theater paired it with "Midsummer
: Night's Dream," the audience would probably overdose from all the eye candy.
I thought so too. Saw both movies on successive nights! 8^)
: 1) What would you guess is Joan Plowright's age? In "Tea With Mussolini,"
: wouldn't you venture she's in her 60s? Yet she shows the young boy a picture
: of a British soldier who appears to be in his 20s and tells the lad she was
: engaged to marry him but he died in "the Great War." But "the Great War"
: was fought only about 17 years before the scene at the table supposedly
: occurs. She had managed to snag a 28-year-old soldier when she was in her
: late 40s? Well, good for her.
I was thinking the same thing. It should have been the Boer war.
That would have made it come out alright.
In fact none of the women seemed to change at all in the years
between Luca going to Austria and coming back. Maggie Smith was
ancient to begin with, she would have gotten much older and slower
at least.
: 2) If Cher's character had already placed all her property in the
: name of the giggolo, why did he need to kill her in order to take
: possession?
I got the idea it was a joint custody deal. The stuff would belong
to both of them unless one died.
: And what was the Gestapo's reaction when they found out she had
: been spirited away? Apparently not angry enough to force any
: retribution on her female companions.)
As I understand it, they didn't come looking for her. But they
would have caught her trying to use a bad passport, then found
she was Jewish.
: 3) And I thought it fortunate that "the humane Nazis" were
: stationed in that town. It seems rather optimistic for the
: women to think that, amid all the carnage inflicted in WW II,
: the Nazis would abandon their plan to dynamite towers simply
: because a few women wrapped themselves in the cord at the
: base of the towers.
The full knowledge of Nazi atrocities came only after the war.
It's plausible to me that A bunch of isolated English women in
Florence would have no idea what Nazis were like, they might
well tie themselves to the building and dare them to blow it
up. And it's also possible that this would have stopped the
Nazis from blowing up the building, at least for a while.
But the sudden retreat, so conveniently timed, is what you'd
call a 'deus ex machina'.
Sally Stang
read anything, nor did I know this was based on Franco Zeffereli's life
story (directed by him too).
I did know that it had Joan Plowright in it, whom I LOVE (she was great
in "Enchanted April). And I knew it was also starring Maggie Smith and
Dame Judith Densch...
Well, I really was surprised when the credits came on and the STAR of
the movie turned out to be CHER....
friggin' CHER, of all people. And _then_ the name LILY TOMLIN pops up
and my mouth fell open.
What the hell kind of movie was this gonna be? Starring these fine
English actresses and CHER??? Friggin' CHER??
(I do like Cher, by the way...a very down to earth woman, really...but
she is like Barbra Streisand or MAdonna...she FILLS the screen with her
CHER-ness....it's hard to focus on anything else or FORGET that she is
CHER, ya know??)
CAVEAT READER- spoilage ahoy
-------------------------
For those of you who have no intention of seeing this movie, here is my
half-assed rendering of the plot and comment.
The time of the story is just before Italy gets involved in WW2. YES,
the scenery is lovely to look at..,That Italian countryside....just
splendid ( The color of Italy in "Midsummer's Night Dream was much
better...more lush. But the movie was really bad...just so awkwardly
filmed...It seemed like a muppet production in the fantasy
sequences....yuck...don't waste your time)
Cher plays an American actress (Elsa Morganthal? I'm not sure if this
was a real name or not....need to read his book to find out...I know the
Morganthal's were a wealthy family like the Vanderbilts, I think?) who
ends up being Franco Zeferelli's benefactor (he is called "Luca" in this
movie). She knew Luca's mother (now dead) who had Luca out of
wedlock...so, she takes an interest in making sure he has some money as
a trust fund.
The English women are ladies who all live in their adopted country of
Italy in the artist's paradise of Florence. Since Luca's father is a
jerk and can't publically acknowledge his bastard son, the English
ladies (primarily Joan Plowright, who spends most of the movie playing a
wide-eyed motherly woman, not very dimensional) have taken the young
boy, Luca, in and take turns feeding him, picking him up from school,
etc.
Lily Tomlin plays an American lesbian (very OUT, wearing pants, etc.)
who was also a friend of Luca's mother. She is an art preservationist or
something.
She is not given much to do except act like a caricature of a
lesbian...lots of reaction shots. Too bad. It's a very "straight" acting
role but not much acting involved. (She is very tan & extremely wrinkely
in this movie...I hope that was makeup....yikes.)
Lady Hester (Maggie Smith...god, she is so much fun to watch...she
always plays that pruney, uptight British type so well) is the wife of
the late ambassoder to Italy, and naively goes to have tea with
Mussolini to tell him that some of his "boys" are getting rough with the
locals in Florence.
She is assured by a hand-kissing Mussolini that no one will ever hurt
the English conclave living in Florence. Even when the years pass and
the Fascists are taking over everywhere, she still believes that he will
keep his word. ( but as trusting and foolish as she is, she does manage
to use the picture of her having tea with Mussolini as a bit of
protection for the ladies.)
Maggie Smith's role is much better and juicier than Plowright's or
Densch's or even Cher's. We don't know "who" the other people are in
much depth, but we get a strong sense of who Lady Hester is.
Time passes and Italy is fully at war with Britain and France. The
English ladies are shuffled off to a horrible place, but then soon moved
to a nice hotel. Lady Hester thinks that it is that "nice Mussolini" who
is taking care of them, but it is, in fact, the actress played by
Cher(whom she can't stand because she is a vulgar rich AMerican), who
has been protecting them with her money.
In the meantime, Luca (who was sent to Austria to become a "good German"
by his jerky father) has returned from school to find that his English
ladies are all being carted away. He soon becomes a go-between for Elsa
and her good deeds (like getting passports for Jews, etc).
There is a little subplot which adds some comic relief and that is that
Lady Hester's 22-year old grandson dresses as a woman to remain with his
over-protective grandmother. He has to blend in with all these older
women and deal with the flirting of the soldiers....It is amusing, but
also becomes an odd "sidebar" to the story as he rebels and runs away,
later helping the actress escape. It is distracting, a bit...but, I am
imagining that this "cross-dressing" thing would be the sort of thing in
real life that would have stuck out in Zeferelli's memories of that
time. I'm sure it made quite an impression.
The teenage Luca, as written or acted, is not so interesting as a
character, as the younger boy / actor was. This would have been a better
movie if at least HE, as a teen, was a strong presence...someone you
really really cared about. I mean...this IS his story. The teen actor
was fine, but the part was skimped on.
SO, eventually, Elsa is taken in by a shithead of an Italian lawyer
(very handsome actor, btw...Paola somebody...Cher got to kiss him...woo
hoo) and signs over all her wealth to him which leaves her stranded and
about to be taken away by the gestapo (yes, they do not guard her or
anything...that does seem odd...but I think the gestapo in Italy were
sort of lax....at least they were in the movie "Life is Beautiful" where
people seemed to be coming and going almost at will...odd...I have no
sense of what it might have really been like from seeing these two
films).
Finally, Lady Hester realizes how blind she has been (about Mussolini
and the American actress) and convinces Elsa to flee the country. The
British ladies are all in danger too, esp. after they try to protect the
local frescoes by tying themselves to a building (far-fetched, but maybe
it happened? this _is_ an autobiography)
but in the nick of time, Luca (who is now with the English army,
somehow?) comes with a battalion of Scottish soldiers in kilts (Scots in
kilts in Italy? Who knew?) who are on the tail of the fascists and
saves them.
The End.
(We went to the China Buffet afterwards, which is All-You-Can-Eat for
about I0 bucks...and boy howdy...we did )
<BUUUUURRRRRRPPPP>