TEA WITH MUSSOLINI (PG). (Universal/UIP) Director: Franco Zeffirelli Stars: Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Cher, Judi Dench, Baird Wallace, Lily Tomlin, Charlie Lucas, Massimo Ghini, Paolo Seganti, Paul Checquer, Tessa Pritchard, Claudio Spadaro, Paula Jacobs, Michael Williams. Mino Bellei Running time: 120 minutes.
Tea With Mussolini is something of a romanticised memoir of director Franco Zeffirelli's early life growing up in Florence during the 1930's and the reign of Mussolini.
The scorpioni were a group of eccentric, expatriate English ladies living in Florence, largely oblivious to the gathering clouds of war. Lady Hester Random (Maggie Smith), the widow of a former ambassador, is the unofficial leader of this group, who keep alight the flame of empire and carry the torch of tradition. In 1935, Mary Wallace (Joan Plowright), the secretary to a local clothing merchant, introduces her employer's illegitimate son Luca into this circle.
Luca, fetchingly played by Charlie Lucas and Baird Wallace, is a thinly disguised, fictional version of the young Zeffirelli. These remarkable women take time out to educate the young Luca in fine arts, Shakespeare, and English, and help shape the boy into the man that he would eventually become. Caught between two cultures, Luca comes of age during the war when he helps the ladies, who were eventually interned in the nearby walled city of San Gimignano.
Tea With Mussolini is easily Zeffirelli's most personal movie to date. With plenty of humour and compassion, the film lovingly explores those early forces that shaped his love of arts and literature, which adds a remarkable personal resonance to the tale. The film spans some ten years, and the narrative occasionally seems to lack focus.
John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole, brings a touch of sardonic humour and quaint touches of English eccentricity to the script. The dialogue crackles with some witty repartee and wonderfully acerbic asides, which the superb cast deliver with relish.
Zeffirelli has assembled a superlative cast of fine English actresses and Oscar winners, and their classy performances enrich the film. Smith is superb as the imperious and haughty Lady Hester, while the always reliable Plowright brings compassion and understanding to her role. Judi Dench is fine as Arabella, the eccentric bohemian artist Arabella, while Cher delivers her best performance for some time as the flamboyant, vulgar but generous Elsa, an American entertainer who unexpectedly proves to be the saviour of the group. Newcomer Wallace, who apparently bears a striking similarity to the young Zeffirelli, is wonderfully appealing as the teenage Luca, even though his accent sometimes wavers.
This remarkable tale of courage is also something of a homage to the beauty and rich history of Florence itself. Oscar winning cinematographer David Watkin (Out Of Africa, etc) captures the beautiful Tuscan landscape, and he imbues the film with a gorgeous, glossy visual surface.
***1/2 greg king http://www.netau.com.au/gregking
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews