Review of Tea with Mussolini (1999) by Stuart K — 07 Feb 2013

Directed by Franco Zeffirelli (Jesus of Nazareth (1977), The Champ (1979) and Hamlet (1990)), this was based on Zeffirelli's early life, here adapted by John Mortimer (Rumpole of the Bailey), and it has a very colourful international cast amid some beautiful locations.

While it is a sentimental film about survival during World War 2, it is well filmed and it shows a way of life that the British had then. It begins in 1935 in Florence where a group of expatriate women meet for tea everyday, they include Mary Wallace (Joan Plowright), Lady Hester Random (Maggie Smith) and eccentric artist Arabella (Judi Dench), also in their company are Jewish American Elsa Morganthal (Cher) and her companion Georgie Rockwell (Lily Tomlin).

Mary takes in Luca (Charlie Lucas) is the illegitimate son of an Italian businessman (Massimo Ghini), who has no interest in his son's life. The ladies teach him the way of English life. However, when their gentle way of life is ruined by anarchists fighting against the regime Benito Mussolini (Claudio Spadaro), they refuse to change their ways.

It's a gently amusing film, with a nice wit courtesy of Mortimer's script, and a great cast of female actors sparking brilliantly off one another, and while it does shy away from the true horrors of what happened at that time, it's good Sunday afternoon viewing.