Reviews & Ratings for
Maria Montessori: una vita per i bambini (TV) More at IMDbPro »

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

For the children

Author: sinceverona from Belgrade, Serbia
28 September 2009

Maria Montessori was the first woman to get enrolled into medical school in Rome. The beginning was hard and as the only female enrolled in medical school, she had to wait until every student was in his seat before entering to a lecture. At her second year in 1893, she needed help with her experiment and she asked the first young man in the corridor does he smoke, because she needed the smell of cigarette. Later she found out that he was one of her professors. His name was Giuseppe Montesano and he was a psychiatrist. After Maria learned that he works at the university psychiatric clinic she offers to help. When she comes to the clinic she finds out the ugly truth, that in the asylum there are children without parents and some of them have been there since birth. Soon she falls in love with her professor but the relationship remained secret. After her graduation she becomes pregnant but Giuseppe is reluctant to merry her. She gave a lecture at the Educational congress in Torino about training disabled and there she impressed the minister of education. By then the children from the psychiatric clinic thanks to her famous Montessory method learned how to read and write and they passed their exams with better grades than children from state schools. Paola Cortellesi was excellent in a role of Maria. It is difficult to take a true story and make it into a movie, but it was brilliantly done. There were no false emotions. The scene when Maria and Giuseppe dance together with mentally disabled seemed a bit odd, but everything else was very good. I liked the fact that her parents supported her decision to become a doctor. After Giuseppes mother came and informed her mother of her pregnancy I was very moved when she stood by her side. Her natural capability to approach every child as a different person was very impressing. Yet everything she has done for the children was done with her absolute dedication and love for the children. Giuseppe from a quiet and grateful college professor and then lover became her worst nightmare and bitter enemy. I do believe that he was jealous of her achievements and that her growing fame was the cause of his cruelty towards her. After all, his mother did say to Marias mother that she stole acknowledgment from her son, but it was obvious that was not the truth. The relationship between Maria and her son Mario was very endearing. It was so sad that the woman who has done so much for other peoples children could not do anything for her own son. Definitely worth seeing.

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