Friends, Caught this movie on HBO. Produced by : MGM Grand. Directed by : Franco Zeffirelli Released in 1999 Cast: Cher / Judi Dench / Joan Plowright / Maggie Smith / Lily Tomlin/ Baird / Wallace / Charlie Lucas / Massimo Ghini / Paolo Seganti / Paul Chequer / Tessa Pritchard / Mino Bellei / Claudio Spadaro / Rizia Ortolani / Stefano Patrizi etc. This movie tells a coming-of-age tale about an illegitimate child who struggles to assert his independence and find his way into a life of art, taken from the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli. Franco Zeffirelli who directs movies like The Champ & Otello.
Franco Zeffirelli is truly a great director and cinematographer. Tea with Mussolini is the true story of a group of mostly British women living in Italy during World War II, against a back drop of beautiful buildings and art, the reality is this story is about this group of women rolling with the punches during the war. Opening in the pre-World War II rise of Fascist Italy, we meet a trio of old ladies, the core of a group of English expatriates living in Tuscany (Northern Italy), determined to save art and culture from modernity. Top dog of this crew is Lady Hester Random (Maggie Smith), widow of the English ambassador who represents the egotism, pomposity, patronizing and self-important behavior of the fading Empire. Both she and the artiste-tic Arabella Delancey (Judi Dench) are blissfully ignorant of the realities of Fascist politics; Il Duce patronizes Hester herself when she goes for tea, to inform him of the dreadful mistake his black shirts have made in messing up the cultured English lifestyle.
As War intrudes and the Brits find themselves locked away in a hotel in San Gimignano, Hester believes it is Mussolini’s intervention that is keeping them in their lifestyle. She’s wrong. Third British player is the only dame that bothers to learn the language, Mary Wallace (Joan Plowright). The most moral of the lot, it is Mary who takes in Luca (Baird Wallace and Charlie Lucas), the illegitimate son of her Italian employer and it is their love and his loyalty to the old ladies that brings us to the second part of the story, set in the midst of the War. It is here that the two Americans introduced earlier become more important: Lily Tomlin as Georgie the archeologist who is tolerated by the Brits because her work allows them to contribute to the ’’saving’’ of culture and Cher as the incredibly rich and free-spirited Elsa -- she marries ’em old and runs with the inheritance. Of the five ladies, two dislike each other intensely (which will lead to some interesting revelations in the third act) and one is a Jew (and this being World War- II, we all know what that means).
To tell anymore would ruin the delightful play of all the characters involved, and I haven’t even mentioned Hester’s grandson who suffers a fate which is, for most men, worse than death (it was indeed a gory experience). The only flaw in the film is that Luca, who appears to be about nine years old when he first appears ages close to a decade in the five years between the first and second half of the story, hey!! I guess does Franco too inspire by Bollywood movies? As you hit the end of Tea With Mussolini, the destiny of each character is put onscreen. If you wonder about Luca, who grows up to be ’’a filmmaker with a contribution to this film’’ that’s Zeffirelli. Though not his life story, the character and incidents within Tea With Mussolini are all expanded from real events in his life (This I gather from some website after watching the movie). In Short a great experience to watch this movie & indeed the touchy part is the climax when Allied forces came to Italy & all the residents of San Gimignano (though Italian) got very happy. Thumb’s Up! Comments awaited. Bhatt