Review of Tea with Mussolini (1999) by Stephen M — 11 Oct 2008

I absolutely love this movie; and I think I loved it before it even came out. Let's face it, it's a cast of great divas and I'm a gay male, how could I not love it? After all the woman standing front and center on the dvd case is my personal diva, Cher; and the rest of the cast are all those fabulous gay icons of the great English acting sect (and one gay icon of the great American comedienne sect). Yes. I was destined to love it.

This was, in fact, the first dvd I ever owned. I did see the film on the big screen, which was a good thing because oh (!) that Italian countryside and Cher's period costumes.

I am always moved by the performances of the actors in this, though I have always had the feeling that there were whole chunks of incomplete storytelling on the part of the writer and director. That's the bummer. It was the writer and director's responsibility to tell the story completely and there are implausabilities and resulting questions. Nevertheless, I have always been willing to forgive these things so that I could sit in wonder of the acting talent of these women playing characters that may seem like charicatures to people who never had any real life characters in their lives, in the form of eccentric old ladies and flambouyant rich people. I always have had real characters in my life; so I enjoy the ones I am given on screen.

I especially love the beautiful score in this film, by the way.

Interesting trivia: it is well known that this movie is based on the real life events in the history of Zeffirelli - what is not widely known is that the character played by Cher was (in real life) a gay male.