The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (film)
Encyclopedia
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a 1970 Italian film, directed by Vittorio de Sica
. It stars Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda
and Helmut Berger
. The film is based upon Giorgio Bassani
's novel of the same name
.
, a group of young friends get together for afternoons of tennis and happy times. Some of them are Jewish and a rising tide of Fascism has imposed increasingly anti-Semitic restrictions in their lives. Barred from regular tennis clubs, they go to play at the grand, walled estate owned by the Finzi-Contini, a wealthy, intellectual and sophisticated Jewish family. The two young Finzi-Contini, Alberto and his sister Micol, have organized a tennis tournament. Oblivious to the threats around them, life still seems to be sunny at the large Finzi-Contini estate, keeping the rest of the world at bay.
Among the visitors there is a man vying for the beautiful, tall and blond, Micol Finzi-Contini. Her middle class Jewish, childhood friend is Giorgio, who feels entitled to her heart. A series of flashbacks show how Giorgio used to wait outside the walls of the estate, hoping for a glimpse of Micol. As teenagers they became fast friends. Now as adults,
they enjoy their mutual company and Micol gives Giorgio special attention. Escaping a sudden downpour in a gazebo, Giorgio tries to touch her, but she rejects him. Alberto, who has a fragile health, enjoys a close friendship with Bruno Malnate, a darkly handsome gentile with socialist sympathies.
Giorgio's father considers the Finzi-Contini so different that they don’t even seem to be Jewish. Wealth, privilege and generations of intellectual and social position have bred them into a family as proud as it is vulnerable. The other Jews in the town react to Mussolini's edicts in various ways: Giorgio is enraged; his father is philosophical. But the Finzi-Continis hardly seem to know, or care, what is happening.
Giorgio, who is about to graduate, becomes a frequent visitor to the Finzi-Contini's villa where he is allowed to use their extensive library. He is in love with Micol, and she seems to return his feeling, but unexpectedly she leaves to stay in Venice with her uncles. On her return Micol changes, coldly rejecting any show of affection from Giorgio. Instead she carries on affair with Bruno Malnate, a man she claims to despise as too vulgar, crude, and leftist for her tastes. Peeking through a window Giorgio discovers Bruno and Micol naked together. Heartbroken Giorgio is comforted by his father.
The political events close in. A journey to visit his brother Ernesto in Grenoble exposes Giorgio to news of the Nazi persecution, but he returns to Ferrara. With the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Bruno is recruited and sent to the Russian front. By 1943 all the young Jews who used to visit the Garden of the Finzi-Continis have been arrested. Malnate has been killed in the Russian front.
By the time the frail and sick Alberto dies, Italian soldiers are hunting down and rounding up the Jews of Ferrara. The Finzi-Continis are abruptly taken away from their contentment and illusory isolation. Separated from her parents Micol and her frail and distraught grandmother are placed in a former classroom. They are surprised to find Giorgio’s father. Anxiously she asks him about Giorgio. He tells her that he hopes that Giorgio and the rest of his family has made it abroad. The fate of the Jews of Ferrara is being deported to the concentration camps. Giorgio's father hopes that at least they won't be separated.
Images shown happy days of Nicole, Alberto, Ernesto and Bruno playing tennis and now the empty tennis court. the sequences is accompanied by the Kadish, a Jewish lament for the death.
, who plays the lead female role, Micol Finzi-Contini, it was her first Italian feature film (followed by such films as The Conformist
and 1900
). For Helmut Berger
, who plays her dying brother Alberto, it was his second feature film.
and was nominated for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
. It won the Golden Bear
at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival
in 1971. It was de Sica's penultimate film.
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....
. It stars Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda
Dominique Sanda
Dominique Sanda is a French actress and former fashion model.Sanda was born as Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne in Paris to Lucienne and Gérard Varaigne...
and Helmut Berger
Helmut Berger
Helmut Berger is an Austrian-born German film and television actor. He is most famous for his work with Luchino Visconti, particularly in his performance as King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Ludwig, for which he received a special David di Donatello award.He appears primarily in European cinema, but...
. The film is based upon Giorgio Bassani
Giorgio Bassani
Giorgio Bassani was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual.-Biography:Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood with his mother Dora, father Enrico , brother Paolo, and sister Jenny...
's novel of the same name
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a historical novel by Giorgio Bassani, published in 1962. It chronicles the relationships between the narrator and the children of the Finzi-Contini family from the rise of Benito Mussolini until the start of World War II.-Background:The Garden of the...
.
Plot
In the late 1930s, in FerraraFerrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
, a group of young friends get together for afternoons of tennis and happy times. Some of them are Jewish and a rising tide of Fascism has imposed increasingly anti-Semitic restrictions in their lives. Barred from regular tennis clubs, they go to play at the grand, walled estate owned by the Finzi-Contini, a wealthy, intellectual and sophisticated Jewish family. The two young Finzi-Contini, Alberto and his sister Micol, have organized a tennis tournament. Oblivious to the threats around them, life still seems to be sunny at the large Finzi-Contini estate, keeping the rest of the world at bay.
Among the visitors there is a man vying for the beautiful, tall and blond, Micol Finzi-Contini. Her middle class Jewish, childhood friend is Giorgio, who feels entitled to her heart. A series of flashbacks show how Giorgio used to wait outside the walls of the estate, hoping for a glimpse of Micol. As teenagers they became fast friends. Now as adults,
they enjoy their mutual company and Micol gives Giorgio special attention. Escaping a sudden downpour in a gazebo, Giorgio tries to touch her, but she rejects him. Alberto, who has a fragile health, enjoys a close friendship with Bruno Malnate, a darkly handsome gentile with socialist sympathies.
Giorgio's father considers the Finzi-Contini so different that they don’t even seem to be Jewish. Wealth, privilege and generations of intellectual and social position have bred them into a family as proud as it is vulnerable. The other Jews in the town react to Mussolini's edicts in various ways: Giorgio is enraged; his father is philosophical. But the Finzi-Continis hardly seem to know, or care, what is happening.
Giorgio, who is about to graduate, becomes a frequent visitor to the Finzi-Contini's villa where he is allowed to use their extensive library. He is in love with Micol, and she seems to return his feeling, but unexpectedly she leaves to stay in Venice with her uncles. On her return Micol changes, coldly rejecting any show of affection from Giorgio. Instead she carries on affair with Bruno Malnate, a man she claims to despise as too vulgar, crude, and leftist for her tastes. Peeking through a window Giorgio discovers Bruno and Micol naked together. Heartbroken Giorgio is comforted by his father.
The political events close in. A journey to visit his brother Ernesto in Grenoble exposes Giorgio to news of the Nazi persecution, but he returns to Ferrara. With the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Bruno is recruited and sent to the Russian front. By 1943 all the young Jews who used to visit the Garden of the Finzi-Continis have been arrested. Malnate has been killed in the Russian front.
By the time the frail and sick Alberto dies, Italian soldiers are hunting down and rounding up the Jews of Ferrara. The Finzi-Continis are abruptly taken away from their contentment and illusory isolation. Separated from her parents Micol and her frail and distraught grandmother are placed in a former classroom. They are surprised to find Giorgio’s father. Anxiously she asks him about Giorgio. He tells her that he hopes that Giorgio and the rest of his family has made it abroad. The fate of the Jews of Ferrara is being deported to the concentration camps. Giorgio's father hopes that at least they won't be separated.
Images shown happy days of Nicole, Alberto, Ernesto and Bruno playing tennis and now the empty tennis court. the sequences is accompanied by the Kadish, a Jewish lament for the death.
Cast
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis marked the debut or near-debut for some of its stars, notably the two adult Finzi-Contini children, Micol and Alberto. For Dominique SandaDominique Sanda
Dominique Sanda is a French actress and former fashion model.Sanda was born as Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne in Paris to Lucienne and Gérard Varaigne...
, who plays the lead female role, Micol Finzi-Contini, it was her first Italian feature film (followed by such films as The Conformist
The Conformist
The Conformist is a novel by Alberto Moravia published in 1951, which details the life and desire for normalcy of a government official during Italy's fascist period. It is also known for the 1970 film adaptation by Bernardo Bertolucci....
and 1900
1900 (film)
1900 is a 1976 Italian epic film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, starring Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Donald Sutherland, Alida Valli, and Burt Lancaster. Set in Bertolucci's ancestral region of Emilia, the film chronicles the lives of two men during the political turmoils...
). For Helmut Berger
Helmut Berger
Helmut Berger is an Austrian-born German film and television actor. He is most famous for his work with Luchino Visconti, particularly in his performance as King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Ludwig, for which he received a special David di Donatello award.He appears primarily in European cinema, but...
, who plays her dying brother Alberto, it was his second feature film.
- Lino CapolicchioLino CapolicchioLino Capolicchio is an Italian actor, screenwriter, and film director. He won a special David di Donatello acting award for his role in Vittorio de Sica's 1970 film, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis....
- Giorgio - Dominique SandaDominique SandaDominique Sanda is a French actress and former fashion model.Sanda was born as Dominique Marie-Françoise Renée Varaigne in Paris to Lucienne and Gérard Varaigne...
- Micol - Helmut BergerHelmut BergerHelmut Berger is an Austrian-born German film and television actor. He is most famous for his work with Luchino Visconti, particularly in his performance as King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Ludwig, for which he received a special David di Donatello award.He appears primarily in European cinema, but...
- Alberto - Fabio TestiFabio TestiFabio Testi is an Italian film actor, notable as the star of, among many other films, First Action Hero.Born in Peschiera del Garda, Italy, the 1.84m tall actor started his film career as a stuntman in his college years...
- Malnate - Romolo Valli - Giorgio's Father
- Camillo Cesarei - Micol's Father
- Inna Alexeievna - Micol's Grandmother
- Katina Morisani - Micol's Mother
- Barbara Pilavin - Giorgio's mother
Reception
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language FilmAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
and was nominated for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
. It won the Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival
21st Berlin International Film Festival
The 21st annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from June 26 to July 6, 1971.-Jury:* Bjørn Rasmussen * Ida Ehre* Walter Albuquerque Mello* Paul Claudon* Kenneth Harper* Mani Kaul* Charlotte Kerr* Rex Reed* Giancarlo Zagni...
in 1971. It was de Sica's penultimate film.
See also
- List of Holocaust films
- List of submissions to the 44th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Italian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film