Loved it!
Are you only a fan of escapist fiction? If so, this movie is DEFINITELY NOT for you. That is a fact. I like escapist fiction, butvI also like films and literature filled with lush poetry, subtle verve, dreamy nostalgia, and serene visuals. This movie qualifies. No action. No slam, bang, pow. This movie instead focuses on the quiet aching that comes with unrequited love, haughty isolationism, passive acceptance and submission. The war, facism, the holocaust, all are covered to a degree without immersing themselves too deeply for the viewer to feel trapped. *sigh*

All in all, this movie is very quiet. I have watched this movie dozens of times, and I have fallen asleep during this movie almost as many times as I watched it. In fact, this is a great cure for insomnia. Now that is not my way of saying it is boring and dead. It is my way of saying this movie is so quiet it will send you dreamily to sleep. *sigh*

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Vittorio de Sica's gorgeous, elegiac film is a solemn meditation on loss of innocence set during one of the most turbulent eras in world history. The Finzi-Continis believe their privilege will protect them from fascist oppression, but their willed isolation and passivity only makes their eventual downfall that much more tragic. Certain images--Giorgio and Micol's ill-fated romantic tryst in a buggy, the slow-motion halcyon portraits of each family member that closes the film--stick with you. A poetic, lyrical masterwork by the great Neorealist director.

brilliant historical drama on youth and italian fascism
This is a deep and lyrical film on the Italian brand of fascism, which many have argued was a "lighter" and more acceptable version than the Hitlerian variety. Well, in this film, what that translates into is that the noose tightens more slowly. In this, you witness gifted and lucky youth, as they attempt to cope with and then shut out what is happening outside the confines of the walls of their property. There are the aristocratic and beautiful Finzi-Continis and their poorer Jewish confreres. Of course, there is also a wonderfully sensitive story of young love, with all the seemingly endless pain that can entail, which sets a backdrop to the dangers that they all face. The fascists are still brutes, but in Italy they know how to smile before slashing when the time is right for them.

The film also takes place in Ferrara, which for me was fascinating personally. I lived quite near that city, and often went there to stroll with my family. I knew the area well, and this film provides a snapshot of what it was like for many who lived 70 years ago. It was the end of a world, vividly portrayed as lost potential.

This was, I believe, Dominique Sanda's first film. She is less well known in the US because she chose not to come to Hollywood, though she was wooed for years with stardom. Instead, she chose to act in high quality serious films in Europe, which are always a treat to come across. Sanda is a genuine artist. In this film, her acting is flawless and subtle - she is arrogant, sensitive, caring, and spoilt all at the same time and totally believable. The other actors shine less brightly, perhaps, but are still excellent.

Warmly recommended.

The fate of refusing to believe the unbelievable when it's the truth
How people blind themselves to the reality around them and insulate themselves from the truth. The movie deals with the Fascist takeover of Jewish property and freedoms in Italy during WW II.

The focus is on one Jewish family and their refusal to take seriously what's happening to them by the authorities until it's too late: by movie's end they are stripped of their property and are being readied to be shipped to a concentration camp. Yet they STILL can't see the writing on the wall. Their insular lives are totally consumed with playing tennis and bicycle riding and flirting with one another. (The walled-in garden is a major symbol of their insularity.)

De Sica makes the ending as painful and shocking as possible for the viewer by photographing everything in bright sunshine and pastels. And painful and shocking it is - like watching lambs being sent to their slaughter. An evocative, excellent movie.

A painful portrait with under the vision of De Sica!
A love story placed in Mussolini 's Italy in the intimacy of an aristocratic Jew family whom ignore their condition until they are arrested and deported.
Solid script, admirable cast, that deservedly won the academy Award in 1971 as Best Foreign Film.