Some old films hold up so beautifully, but I found the Garden of the Finzi-Contini's to be among the creaky dated ones. I think it must be a much better novel than movie. The only way to understand the Finzi-Continis and their garden is as literary metaphors. The dying brother?--maybe the death of the world they knew?? The unpredictable, cruel Micol? --The fate of Jews who act as though they are not Jewish--assimilated on the outside, confused and hollow on the inside. She flirts with but rejects a Jewish man who loves her, and has casual sex with an Aryan faschist whom she considers crude--just as the Ferrara Jews seem flirt with and reject their Jewishness and submit to the loss of their civil liberties. The garden?--the carefree innocence lost in the Holocaust. And so on. It's worth seeing for the beautiful young men and women--all burnished gold. The power of the film is provided by the portrayal of Georgio's family, stuggling to understand and accommodate as their rights are taken away one at a time. They are heartbreaking.
Review of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
