If you have not yet seen Tea With Mussolini, please, drop
everything and go see this gem.
I am basking in joy and beauty from the gloriousness of it.
Tea With Mussolini will be a film that will have endurance, it
will be with us for a long long time. First, the female roles and
performances were all simply splendid. Cher should take a
nomination for best actress, in fact, I think they all are
contenders for that honor, but she shines in the movie: a perfect
counterpoint to the other women in the film. The cast reads like
a who's who of great actors: Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Judie
Dench, Lily Tomlin, and on and on. Not one bad performance in the
lot.
Secondly, this little gem of a movie tells a somewhat different
story than the one we've become used to about WWII. Yes, the
british are brave, even the women, but the setting, in Florence,
and later San Gerimanino (?), are an integral part of the story
itself: how Mussolini changed Italy. I've watched many war films,
but this one is unique in its perspective, and I think, adds to
the body of great films about the lives of people caught in
wartime Europe.
Third, this is a film about great and wonderful women. Women with
spirit, individuality, charm, stuffiness, and intelligence. I was
inspired by the portraits of women from a different era in this
film. Contrast the women portrayed here with the discussion we
had over Altman's view of women, and there is no greater measure
of distance than the two of them. Zeffirelli loves women. He
understands women. He honors women. All of which come shining
through in this picture.
This is a film where the women are magnificant, in all their
glory, warts and all, weaknesses and strengths, and worth
admiring across time.
