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Italy Fascism World War II

Vittorio De Sica's Garden of the Finzi-Continis begins with images of a garden, that have been filtered to red, which play while the titles run. An inter-title tells us that this takes place in Ferrara, Italy from 1938 to 1943, Mussolini's fascist government is in power and racial laws are being applied to the Italian Jews. Cut to several young people riding bicycles through the street.

At the gates to a very large home, they all get off of their bicycles and call through the fence to ask if the people inside can come out to play. A man calls back from inside and our cyclists ride back to the now open main gate, where they meet up with a horde of their friends, then very slowly and cautiously past a very large dog. While they make their way to the house, the camera eavesdrops on a few of the trailing bikers and they explain to us that we're here to see Micol who's blonde, tall and very beautiful.

It's a fairly long ride to the house so, we can tell that this is a really large estate and, as we draw nearer the house, it's easy to ascertain that the people who live here are not exactly poor. The place resembles a small castle. We eventually catch up with Micol who's playing tennis with her brother, Alberto, on a court located somewhere in the back forty acres of the yard. Georgio introduces us to Adriana and Carleto and Tonio as well as several of the other visitors. Micol and Giorgio wander off to find him a place to change then the camera cuts back to Alberto and his friend from Milan as they lounge and discuss women and politics. Malnate, it seems, embraces something of a Socialist ideology

Cut to Micol and a newly changed Giorgio as they ride their bicycles down a path and flash back to the beginnings of their romance, many years ago. A few scenes later, Giorgio rails at his father when he tries to explain to him that Italian fascism is somehow better than nazism. After Giorgio has stormed out of the room, his father reads the news of the supreme council's latest meeting aloud: it seems that Jews are no longer permitted to marry non-Jews and will no longer be allowed to attend state schools. Apparently, they'll no longer be able to keep their Aryan maid either.

In Giorgio's room, a bit later, Dad mentions that they're no longer allowed phone listings or obituaries and that they've been banned from the military as well, before halfheartedly attempting to justify all that's happened to his people. Cut to the garden where the same bunch is playing again and a visit from the parents who are quite pleasant people. When Malnate asks Micol why she doesn't seem to like him she tells him that in addition to being crude and a Communist, he's just altogether too hairy.

Cut to the rest of the older generation as they stroll through the garden. Alberto walks into the house followed by Uncle Federico and they discuss Alberto's health. When it starts to rain, the crowd disperses and Micol and Giorgio run into the garage where they flash back once again to an earlier moment in their romance. Whilst sitting in the garage, Micol gets positively flirtatious. That evening, Malnate and Antonio discuss Antonio's sex life.

The next morning, Giorgio arrives at the Finzi-Contini's for his date and is told that Micol has gone off to Venice with her uncles. Later that morning, he's kicked out of the library because he's "one of them". When he goes to see the director, the man tells him that he has a family and just can't do anything about it. The library at the Finzi-Contini's is better stocked and he's welcome there so Georgio does manage to get some studying in.

Cut to another flashback to an early Giorgio/Micol moment then to a phone call from Micol saying she'll be gone for some time; she's finishing her thesis. When she finally does come back home, Micol is strangely cold and distant and has decided that she won't see Giorgio any longer. You will find out just why Micol has become so cold and you'll get to watch the destruction of not only Giorgio's family but the Finzi-Continis as well before it's all over.

This is very simply a brilliant movie by a brilliant director. It's very much like the best neo-realism only this is done in color and with exactly the proper artistic flourishes added to make things more powerful. For someone that's made a life's work of showing us important social issues this is a perfect bit of subject matter and it's been dealt with incredibly well here. I can't find anything to fault in this film whatsoever. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis won the oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Screenplay.