TEA WITH MUSSOLINI This autobiographical memoir, about an Italian boy befriended and tutored by grandmotherly English ladies in Fascist Italy just before World War II, is far off the usual 1999 movie menu. It mixes visual beauty, social nostalgia and satire, genteel femininity, and ironic period intrigues and heroics.
The boy (as well as the writer-director) is Franco Zeffirelli (now 77), who has become one of the century’s notable directors of opera and Shakespeare on both stage and screen, and especially of Catholic films. His Brother Sun, Sister Moon is an enduringly gorgeous tribute to the young St. Francis. And his Jesus of Nazareth TV miniseries has been the standard among Jesus movies for two decades. (It’s also widely accepted as closest to the Gospels.)
Zeffirelli uses Tea to explain himself and his artistic roots. His character, the boy Luca (played as a youth by Baird Wallace), is an illegitimate child neglected by his father and informally raised by a colorful coterie of women in the then-thriving British colony in Florence.
The women include his father’s kind secretary, Mary (Joan Plowright), who teaches him about theater and Shakespeare, the somewhat nutty Arabella (Judi Dench), passionate about both her dog and classical art, Lady Hester (Maggie Smith), a haughty ambassador’s widow who admires the vibrant Mussolini, the eccentric Jewish-American singer, Elsa (Cher), who collects modern paintings and wealthy husbands; and Georgie (Lily Tomlin), an American archaeologist.
The movie is an affectionate tribute to them, their kindnesses and peculiarities. It shows how they cope with their declining status from privilege to primitive treatment as wartime internees in the picturesque medieval town of San Gimignano.
Smith has the highlight scene in which she fawns over Mussolini in his over the top Roman palace. She provides abrasiveness, then repentance, in a reprise of her roles as a stuffy idealist brought to earth. She’s a natural foil for the much looser yet self-sacrificing Elsa. Beautifully acted and shot, recommended for mature viewers.
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