Tea with Mussolini (1999)

Director:

Franco Zeffirelli

Writers:

John Mortimer (writer)
Franco Zeffirelli (autobiography)

Release Date:

14 May 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | War

Tagline:

A story of civilized disobedience

Plot:

Semi-autobiographical tale from the early life of director Franco Zeffirelli looks at the illegitimate son (Charlie Lucas as a child...

Plot Keywords:

American | Italy | Italian | 1940s | Bastard

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Cher	...	Elsa Morganthal Strauss-Armistan
Judi Dench	...	Arabella
Joan Plowright	...	Mary Wallace
Maggie Smith	...	Lady Hester Random
Lily Tomlin	...	Georgie Rockwell
Baird Wallace	...	Luca
Charlie Lucas	...	Luca (Child)
Massimo Ghini	...	Paolo
Paolo Seganti	...	Vittorio Fanfanni
Claudio Spadaro	...	Mussolini
Mino Bellei	...	Cesare
Paul Chequer	...	Wilfred Random, aka Miss Lucy
Tessa Pritchard	...	Connie Raynor
Michael Williams	...	British Consul
Paula Jacobs	...	Molly

Also Known As:

Un te con Mussolini (Italy)
Chá com Mussolini (Brazil) (Portugal) (video title) [pt]
Un thé avec Mussolini (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
La ceai cu Mussolini (Romania) [ro]
Té con Mussolini (Spain) [es]
Te med Mussolini (Denmark) [da]
Tee mit Mussolini (Germany) [de]
Teetä Mussolinin kanssa (Finland) [fi]

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements, language, brief nudity and some mild violence.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

Italy | UK

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:PG | Iceland:L | Finland:K-8 | France:U | Germany:6 (bw) | New Zealand:M | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG | Portugal:M/6

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Cattleya

Trivia:

Vanessa Redgrave and Angela Lansbury were first considered for the roles of Lady Hester and Mary, but due their schedule problems they were replaced by Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The ladies protect the frescoes by building a wall around them using sandbags. But the bags are obviously filled with something light and fluffy, such as kapok or cotton.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Title Card: Florence 1935.
Title Card: The love affair between the artistically-inclined English community and Florence was soon to be overshadowed by the clouds of war.
Title Card: But at the moment the sun is still shining on the squares and statues, and the dictator Mussolini is the gentleman who makes the trains run on time.
Connie Raynor: Excuse me, are you the Consul?
British Consul: Yes.
Connie Raynor: Connie Raynor of the Morning Post. I'm fascinated to know what His Majesty's Consul in Florence makes of it all?
British Consul: I can't believe your readers would be interested in our little ceremony.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Features A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Soundtrack:

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Zeffirelli Gets Nostalgic About How He Learned to Love Shakespeare

It's certainly not clear how fictionalized a version of Zeffirelli's autobiography "Tea With Mussolini" is, what with the usual disclaimers at the end. Even presuming this is just a riff off an incident in his life, that he had some contact with memorable English ladies, it's clearly his tribute to where his love of English literature comes from, particularly Shakespeare. He's done several Shakespeare interpretations-- movies, opera and play directing. The film has a lovely scene of him being first introduced to acting out "Romeo & Juliet" with puppets, as well as constant quotes from Shakespeare throughout about war and his situation.

I was surprised how good the movie was - I was in tears several times, especially with visuals that bring up the same comparisons as "The Train" did, with art vs. war, humanity's heights of creativity vs. its lows of prejudice and violence.

These Oscar-winning ladies are absolutely terrific, yes including Cher. One elderly gentleman behind me complained that Maggie Smith basically always plays the same character but I thought her character does change towards the end. The others were certainly not their usual on-screen personas, Judi Dench as a free-spirited artist, Joan Plowright as a quite warm-hearted grandmotherly type, and Lily Tomlin a hoot as a butch archaeologist.

But why choose bland Italian actors for them to play off of? To make the Scorpioni, as they are called, stand out more? The Italians seemed stereotyped to me, Latin lover, ignorant peasants not appreciating their ancient artistic heritage.

What the movie also brought to mind is how few Italian movies have dealt with their fascist past as much as the French have been exploring their consciences of collaboration in film. Sure "Garden of Finzi Continis," "Two Women" and "Life Is Beautiful" show arrests, etc. but I don't get the sense of soul searching as to how did this happen here and could it again? Just because they didn't have Shakespeare and appreciate the treasures of the Uffizi as this film implies? (originally written 5/15/1999)