THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Vittorio De Sica, 1970 (94 mins)
Why did some flee and others stay? That question can be asked after seeing this film and in general reference to the Shoah. Some were arrested early on, some couldn’t get visas, didn’t have the means to leave, were stopped when tried and others didn’t believe it would happen to them. This last reason seems to be why the aristocratic, wealthy and cultured Finzi-Continis remained ensconced in their Italian villa, with its vast garden more forest than flowerbed.
Director Vittorio De Sica, famous for neo-realism (Bicycle Thieves, Two Women) creates the opposite with his last masterstroke: The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis went on to win Best Foreign Language Film at 1972’s Oscars. Eschewing concentration camps (save for a short but foretelling mention) and violence, it’s shot luminously and richly in soft-focus by cinematographer Ennio Guarnieri and told as in a dream – until it slowly turns into a nightmare. Adapted from Giorgio Bassani’s hauntingly moving semi-autographical book of the same name, it’s the story of Giorgio (puppyish Lino Capolicchio), a middle-class Jew studying for his university degree, plus the above-named family and other assimilated Jews of Ferrara during 1938-1943.
The film opens with Giorgio and others arriving at the Finzi-Continis’ Ferrara home for tennis on a bright summer’s day. As Mussolini has enforced the Italian race laws, three years after Germany’s Nuremberg Laws, the Finzi-Contini heirs – defiant, headstrong Micol (Dominique Sanda) and younger brother Alberto (Helmut Berger), both flawlessly stunning – are holding tennis tournaments, since they’ve been expelled from the local club. Also invited are Christian friends, along with Jewish ones, glowingly gorgeous too. In this mix is Communist Malnate (Fabio Testi), who Alberto can’t admit he fancies.
Giorgio has long been in love with elusive Micol, infatuated with her and her family since they both were children (shades of The Go-Between and Brideshead Revisited). He’s punching above his weight and knows it: one reason why, along with shyness, his advances are halting and clumsy. After a glimmer of hope, Micol rebuffs him. She’s unattainable, an ice princess, saying she feels for him only as a friend; in one cruel and callous carnal scene, she makes sure he gets the message. Sanda displays more emotion in the last 10 minutes than she does in the rest of the film, albeit due to the direction and plot rather than her acting ability; here, she reveals she does care for Giorgio.
Increasing denial of Jewish rights and banning of activities (mixed marriages, state schools, libraries, phone/obituary listings and more), prompt the Finzi-Continis to become more isolated and insular. The walls of their estate, once protecting them from outsiders, are now closing in, and the trees and vegetation are suffocating them from reality. But they can’t be that blind, can they?
A shadow will fall over the noble and great garden, eventually only where silence dwells. Overgrown and empty, with no more picnics, games, laughter or vivacity. Like other gardens throughout Europe, the occupants never to return.
The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis is screened with a discussion at 7pm UK time on Thurs 11 Feb by the Museum Of Jewish Heritage, and is available to view at this link until Sun 14 Feb. The discussion was also filmed and can be seen here. It’s also available to view on YouTube.
words RHONDA LEE REALI