The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)

The story of the Finzi-Continis, a noble family of Ferrara, during the Jewish persecution in Italy's 1930s.

Director:

Vittorio De Sica

Writers:

Giorgio Bassani (novel), Vittorio Bonicelli

Stars:

Dominique Sanda, Lino Capolicchio, Helmut Berger

Won 1 Oscar. Another 10 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lino Capolicchio	...	Giorgio
Dominique Sanda	...	Micòl Finzi Contini
Fabio Testi	...	Giampiero Malnate
Romolo Valli	...	Padre di Giorgio / Giorgio's Father
Helmut Berger	...	Alberto Finzi Contini
Camillo Cesarei	...	Prof. Ermanno Finzi Contini
Inna Alexeievna	...	Regina Artom Herrera, nonna di Micol (as Inna Alexeieff)
Katina Morisani	...	Olga Finzi Contini
Barbara Pilavin	...	Madre di Giorgio / Giorgio's Mother (as Barbara Leonard Pilavin)
Michael Berger	...	Studente tedesco / German student
Ettore Geri	...	Maggiordomo Perotti / The majordome
Raffaele Curi	...	Ernesto, fratello di Giorgio
Gianpaolo Duregon	...	Bruno Lattes
Marcella Gentile	...	Fanny, sorella di Giorgio
Cinzia Bruno	...	Micol da bambina / Young Micol

Storyline

Mussolini's Italy, late 1930s: the Finzi-Contini are one of the leading wealthy Jewish families. Their adult children gather friends for tennis and parties at their lovely grounds, with the rest of the world at bay, while politics close in.

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Plot Keywords:

sex | nudity | italy | family character name in title | child | 

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Taglines:

The Finzi-Continis were Italians living in Ferrara, Italy in 1938. They were rich, beautiful, unapproachable and Jewish. They lived in a walled dream world until they were forced to open the gates.

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Genres:

Drama | History | War

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Pictures Classics

Country:

Italy West Germany

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

16 December 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

Filming Locations:

Ferrara, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$112,105, 24 November 1996

Gross USA:

$596,694

Company Credits

Production Co:

Documento Film, CCC-Filmkunst

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nine people, including the original novel's author, worked on the screenplay (including Vittorio De Sica and Franco Brussati) but only two men, Ugo Pirro and Vittorio Bonicelli, were allowed to take credit and be nominated for the Oscar for Best Screenplay Based On Material From Another Medium.

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Quotes

Giorgio's Father: In life, in order to understand, to really understand the world, you must die at least once. So it's better to die young, when there's still time left to recover and live again.

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Connections

Referenced in Lovelace (2013)

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Soundtracks

Vivere
Written by Cesare A. Bixio (uncredited)
Performed by Tito Schipa
Per concessione della EMI Italiana S.p.A.

User Reviews

Bittersweet and elusive...

In THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS -- based on the autobiographical novel by Giorgio Bassani -- legendary Neorealist filmmaker, Vittorio de Sica, dramatizes the human cost of the `racial laws' gradually implemented against the Jews in Fascist Italy during the years 1938-43. The more Bassani's young middle-class Jewish protagonist feels the brunt of Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts encroaching upon him, the more he feels drawn to the aristocratic Jewish Finzi-Continis' estate -- their Edenic "garden" -- and to Micòl, the family's beautiful young daughter. Psychologically, this compulsion seems to stem from a deep emotional attachment to a perpetually innocent, untroubled state of childhood, which both Micòl and her garden seem to represent. Throughout the film, there is a marked conflict between childhood and adulthood, between the distant past and the immediate present, between the act of retreating into a world of comfortable illusions and confronting a world of harsh and bitter realities.

I found this particular aspect of the story very fascinating, although too tantalizingly obscure and open-ended -- and thus, not quite as illuminating or fulfilling as it might have been were it more clearly explained. (This could the reason why some people find the film -- and its heavily symbolic, impressionistic style -- a little confusing and underwhelming.)

For Giorgio -- both the naive hero and wisened author of the story -- Micòl embodies the mystery and allure of the Finzi-Continis, as well as their insularity and their apparent passivity in the face of the escalating Fascist crackdown. She always appears distant and unattainable, with no obvious reasons for her actions, and never really provides a direct, comprehensible explanation for her insistent rejection of Giorgio or for what appears to be a subtle streak of cruelty towards him. Her conversation with him always seems deliberately vague, and her refusal to make any further connection with him has a curious, almost perverse kind of fatalism about it. Again, this is another feature of the film that is certainly intriguing -- and strangely seductive -- but, alas, never quite pays off enough to become fully understandable to either the protagonist or the audience. When the Fascists finally do arrest the Finzi-Continis and confiscate their estate it comes as something of a surprise. The muted and deliberately spare representation of these characters and their feelings, as evidenced in their unusually restrained behavior, is meant to isolate and heighten the impact of a few devastating strokes of sudden realization and lucidity -- pointed indications that the protective spell of the Finzi-Continis has been finally broken.

All in all, well-acted and gorgeously, languidly poetic in its imagery...yet, narrative-wise, the picture seems overly elliptical and ultimately opaque -- and leaves just a few too many rough fragments and loose ends lingering at the end of the story (not quite Proustian irony, maybe?). In spite of this peculiar drawback, the film finishes very effectively, and by the final desolate shots, you are left with an unexpectedly intense feeling of loss and anguish. It is important to note, however, that the last scene -- in which Giorgio's father meets the Finzi-Continis in a detention center -- is fictitious and does not appear in the novel, and Bassani had a falling out with de Sica about this.