The Garden Of The Finzi Continis

Starring:Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda, Fabio Testi, Romolo Valli, Helmut Berger, Camillo Cesarei, Inna Alexeievna, Katina Morisani, Barbara Pilavin, Michael Berger, Ettore Geri, Raffaele Curi, Gianpaolo Duregon, Marcella Gentile, Cinzia Bruno, Alessandro D'Alatri, Julius Streicher, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Eugene Pomero
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Set in northern Italy's Ferrara community at the outbreak of World War II, this classic film by Vittorio De Sica concerns an old, aristocratic Jewish family, the Finzi-Continis, who maintain their isolated, idyllic ways within the stone walls of their lush estate while Mussolini imprisons Jews outside. The story's central figure, young Giorgio (Lino Capolicchio), is a middle-class Jew who has always found perfect sanctuary within the Finzi-Continis' walls and who is in love with his childhood friend from that family, Micol (Dominique Sanda). Micol, however, is sexually restless and fit to burst for want of experiences impossible under government oppression. As Giorgio suffers his estrangement from her, De Sica traces the disintegration of a lost and beautiful way of life, slowly turning his focus from the privileged refuge of tennis courts and private libraries to police barriers and rooms where Jews await transport to concentration camps. This powerful work of memory tragically captures a loss of innocence on both the most personal and historical stages. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

brilliant historical drama on youth and italian fascism.......2005-11-04

This is a deep and lyrical film on the Italian brand of fascism, which many have argued was a "lighter" and more acceptable version than the Hitlerian variety. Well, in this film, what that translates into is that the noose tightens more slowly. In this, you witness gifted and lucky youth, as they attempt to cope with and then shut out what is happening outside the confines of the walls of their property. There are the aristocratic and beautiful Finzi-Continis and their poorer Jewish confreres. Of course, there is also a wonderfully sensitive story of young love, with all the seemingly endless pain that can entail, which sets a backdrop to the dangers that they all face. The fascists are still brutes, but in Italy they know how to smile before slashing when the time is right for them.

The film also takes place in Ferrara, which for me was fascinating personally. I lived quite near that city, and often went there to stroll with my family. I knew the area well, and this film provides a snapshot of what it was like for many who lived 70 years ago. It was the end of a world, vividly portrayed as lost potential.

This was, I believe, Dominique Sanda's first film. She is less well known in the US because she chose not to come to Hollywood, though she was wooed for years with stardom. Instead, she chose to act in high quality serious films in Europe, which are always a treat to come across. Sanda is a genuine artist. In this film, her acting is flawless and subtle - she is arrogant, sensitive, caring, and spoilt all at the same time and totally believable. The other actors shine less brightly, perhaps, but are still excellent.

Warmly recommended.

The fate of refusing to believe the unbelievable when it's the truth.......2005-10-18

How people blind themselves to the reality around them and insulate themselves from the truth. The movie deals with the Fascist takeover of Jewish property and freedoms in Italy during WW II.

The focus is on one Jewish family and their refusal to take seriously what's happening to them by the authorities until it's too late: by movie's end they are stripped of their property and are being readied to be shipped to a concentration camp. Yet they STILL can't see the writing on the wall. Their insular lives are totally consumed with playing tennis and bicycle riding and flirting with one another. (The walled-in garden is a major symbol of their insularity.)

De Sica makes the ending as painful and shocking as possible for the viewer by photographing everything in bright sunshine and pastels. And painful and shocking it is - like watching lambs being sent to their slaughter. An evocative, excellent movie.

A painful portrait with under the vision of De Sica!.......2005-10-13

A love story placed in Mussolini 's Italy in the intimacy of an aristocratic Jew family whom ignore their condition until they are arrested and deported.
Solid script, admirable cast, that deservedly won the academy Award in 1971 as Best Foreign Film.

Beautiful, haunting , foreign drama.......2005-03-06

The Garden of the Finzi Contini's is not only one of the most
powerful and emotionally touching films ever made, it contains
one of the most powerful, beautiful, and emotionally touching
SOUNDTRACKS ever scored. After seeing this haunting work of art,
I tracked down the Italian import cd soundtrack of the film
after much searching and obtained it. As said before, the film
itself about A Jewish family that is doomed, is heartbreaking.
You know it's coming, and when it does, I actually cried it was
so moving. Again, the music in this film is nothing short of
brilliant and contributed greatly to the emotional impact of the
story. Not a film for the shallow or simpled minded. It's a
serious, dramatic work of art that will remain timeless. The
Adam Sandler, "Kill Bill" crowd can kindly stay away from great
cinema like this.

James Stewart

Imperfect, but unforgettable.......2004-09-03

In this haunting work by Vittoria De Sica an aristocratic Italian-Jewish family, the Finzi-Continis, serve as a symbol of European civilization in the hands of the fascists on the eve of World War II. Seeing it again after thirty years I find myself saddened almost as much by the story of a stillborn, unrequited love as I am by the horror of the cattle cars to come.

Dominique Sanda with her large, soft eyes is mesmerizing as the beautiful, enigmatic, but icy Micol Finzi-Contini. Giorgio (Lino Capolicchio) is her childhood friend, a boy from a middle-class Jewish family, now grown up. He's in love with her, but her feelings for him are that of a sister. He is confused by her warmth, and then as he tries to get close, her cool rejection.

It has often been expressed metaphorically that Europe in the thirties was raped by fascism. However in this extremely disturbing film, De Sica is saying that it wasn't a rape, that the aristocracy of Europe (here represented by the Finzi-Continis of Ferrara, and in particular by the young and beautiful Micol) was a willing, even an eager, participant in the bestial conjoining.

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is far from perfect; some would say it is also far from De Sica's best work. Certainly it comes after his prime. The editing is a little too severe in places, while some of the scenes are too loosely focused. Nonetheless this is an enormously powerful film that finds its climax in one of the most disturbing scenes in all of cinema. There is little point in discussing this film without looking at this scene. Consequently, for those of you who have not seen the film and do not want to risk having it spoiled for you, you should stop reading now and come back afterwards.

Everything in the movie works toward setting up the cabana scene. We see the dog several times, hinting at a crude, animalistic side to Micol. And there is the wall that separates the Finzi-Contini's garden of civilization from the black shirts in the streets, a wall that also separates the rich from other people, particularly from the middle class who support the fascists (as we are told in the opening scene). We see Micol leading Giorgio by the hand about the estate, but always when he tries to caress her, she pulls away. Finally she explains to him why she doesn't love him. She says, "lovers want to overwhelm each other...[but]...we are as alike as two drops of water...how could we overwhelm and want to tear each other...it would be like making love with a brother..." But hearing these words is not enough. Giorgio goes to the wall one last time, sees a red bicycle there (red and black were the colors of the Nazi party) and knows that Micol is with someone else. He climbs the wall and finds the dog outside the cabana so that he knows she is within. In the opening scene she referred to the cabana with the German "Hütte," adding that now "we'll all have to learn German." What he sees when he looks through the window fills him with a kind of stupefying horror, as it does us. Not a word is spoken. He sees her, he sees who she is with and what the circumstances are. She sees him, turns on the light so that there can be no mistake and they stare wordlessly at one another. She projects not shame, but a sense of "This is who I am. I would say I'm sorry, but it wouldn't change anything. This is what I'm drawn to."

What is expressed in this essentially symbolic scene, acted out in sexual terms, is what happened to Europe. Micol is at once the love he wanted so much, deflowered by an anonymous, but clearly fascist man, and she is also the aristocracy of Europe, polluted by fascism.

I wonder if it is just a coincidence that the famous poem by Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess," is also set in Ferrara. In that poem the narrator reveals himself through the unfeeling brutality of his speech and actions to be, although an aristocrat, an incipient fascist. I also wonder if De Sica is saying that the Jews in some sense contributed to the horror that befell them, and by extension, all of humanity. We see this expressed in the person of Giorgio's father who continually insists that it's not that bad yet, as step by step they lose their status as citizens, a prelude to the dehumanization that is the precursor of genocide. Certainly the closing scenes in which the Jews of Italy are seen to be compliant as they are led to the slaughter suggests as much. I know that the central feeling expressed by Jews after the war and especially in Israel was simply, "never again." Nevertheless, there is a certain sense of the inevitable about this film that I find particularly disturbing. Passivity in sexual terms, a "giving in" to one's nature is one thing. A passivity in political terms is quite another, and yet it is part of the power of this film to show us how they are related in our psyches.

Arthur Cohn Presents (American Dream/Behind the Sun/Black and White in Color/A Brief Vacation/Central Station/Dangerous Moves/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/One Day in September/Two Bits)

Average customer rating:

Arthur Cohn Presents (American Dream/Behind the Sun/Black and White in Color/A Brief Vacation/Central Station/Dangerous Moves/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis/One Day in September/Two Bits)
Starring: Fernanda Montenegro , Marília Pêra , Vinícius de Oliveira , Soia Lira , and Othon Bastos
Director: Walter Salles , Vittorio De Sica , and Kevin Macdonald
Manufacturer: Homevision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001689WY
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Description

In the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Arthur Cohn has received more Oscars® than any other producer. He is the only foreign film producer to have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. Home Vision Entertainment is proud to present this unique collection of highly acclaimed films produced by the legendary Arthur Cohn, available exclusively from HVe in this special nine-disc collector's set.

Assembled and distributed by Home Vision Entertainment, this homage to Academy Award™-winning Producer Arthur Cohn is an unprecedented collaboration among Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Classics, Paramount Pictures,
Universal Studios, Miramax Studios, and Buena Vista's Home Entertainment Group.

This unique set features the following films, produced by Arthur Cohn, on DVD:
American Dream, Behind the Sun, Black and White in Color, Sky Above Mud Below, A Brief Vacation ,The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, One Day in September, Two Bits, and Dangerous Moves

Oscar™ and Academy Award™ are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

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