TEA WITH MUSSOLINI (G2 Productions 1999) MGM Home Video

Take five extremely well-seasoned actresses, the sublime beauty of pre-war Italy, and a director of considerable merit and what have you? Well, if the director is Franco Zeffirelli and the stars are Cher, Dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, and, Lili Tomlin, the results are Tea with Mussolini (1999); a somewhat maudlin melodrama derived from Zeffirelli’s own life experiences as a boy growing up during the Second World War in Fascist Italy. An occasionally moving homage to those last days of genteel association between ‘the Scorpioni’ – English expats, who descended on Florence with thoroughly misguided notions, not only about absorbing the nation’s art and culture, but also blindly to respect Il Duce’s Nazi-puppet regime, Zeffirelli’s tribute teems with a sort of laid-back charm that, inadvertently, delays our admiration for the rich characterizations each of its stars puts forth with celebrated aplomb. The actresses are typecast: Smith, of course, as the stuffy socialite, Dench – the dotty and philosophizing benefactress, Tomlin, as a no-nonsense pseudo-lesbian skeptic, Plowright, the benevolent mother-figure, and Cher as, what else? – the wealthy American star of stage and screen, immaculately tricked out in some stunning fashion creations by costume designers, Anna Anni, Jenny Beavan and Alberto Spiazzi.

We embark upon our picturesque journey to Florence, circa 1935, where the Scorpioni meet for tea every afternoon. Young Luca (Charlie Lucas as a handsome and wide-eyed child substitute for Zeffirelli) is the illegitimate son of an Italian businessman, Paolo (Massimo Ghini) whose dressmaking mother has recently died. Mary Wallace (Joan Plowright), who works as Paolo’s secretary, accepts responsibility for the boy’s upbringing, turning for support to her Scorpioni friends. These include the eccentric would-be artist, Arabella (Judi Dench). The arrival of Elsa Morganthal (Cher – as the vacuous American) is an afront to Lady Hester Random (Maggie Smith), who barely tolerates her vulgar display of obscene wealth. Elsa, as it turns out, has come to commission a new set of clothes from Luca’s mother, is mildly shocked to discover she has died impoverished, and thereafter, most determined to set up a financial trust for Luca’s education. Shades of things to come rear their ugly head when the restaurant the ladies frequent is vandalized by the Fascists. Lady Hester, widow of Britain's former ambassador to Italy, maintains an affection for Benito Mussolini (Claudio Spadaro) whom she believes to be an honorable man. Alas, the political climate steadily sours, depriving the Scorpioni of their status and liberties. Luca's father reasons Italy's future is with Germany rather than Britain and takes the boy from Mary’s care, placing him in an Austrian boarding school.

Five years later, Luca (now played by Baird Wallace) returns to Florence, hoping to use Elsa's trust fund to study art. Most of the British nationals are in a mad scramble to leave the country, anticipating Britain’s declaration of war. Given their precarious status, Mary has moved in with Lady Hester and a handful of the English hold-outs. Luca arrives at their villa just as they – and Hester's ineffectual grandson, Wilfred (Paul Chequer), disguised as a young woman for his safety – are being put onto a transport truck by Italian soldiers. Luca tails them to the nearby Tuscan town of San Gimignano. Because the United States has yet to enter the war, Elsa and her American cohort, Georgie Rockwell (Lily Tomlin), an openly gay archaeologist, remain at large. Elsa implores Luca to deliver forged documents, relocating the ladies from their impoverished barracks, to posh digs in an up-scale hotel. Believing Mussolini has issued these orders, Lady Hester’s head swells. Il Duce has not forgotten her. However, as the war progresses, oppression of Jews threatens Elsa’s respite. She is somewhat protected by her American citizenship for the time being. But even she acknowledges, soon no one will be exempt from this advancing tyranny. To this end, Elsa endeavors to secure fake passports for a group of Italian Jews, enlisting Luca – who has become enamored of her – to deliver them. Alas, Luca becomes green-eyed when Elsa informs him of her romance with Vittorio (Paolo Seganti), a shrewd Italian lawyer who endeavors to embezzle Elsa’s art collection and considerable wealth, thus surrendering her to the Gestapo.

Aware of this deception, but still harboring his jealousies, Luca remains silent. Eventually, Mary unearths the truth from Elsa’s art dealer, (Mino Bellei). Luca’s stance softens and he donates his trust fund money to the Italian resistance, which Wilfred has already joined. Unable to bring herself to believe in Vittorio's betrayal, Elsa is convinced after Lady Hester repents of her contempt for her and offers gratitude and assistance to escape. Before she departs, Elsa tells Luca how she once aided his unwed mother to deliver a healthy baby boy – him.  Thus, the circle of life has come around where, now, it is he who repays the debt by saving her. As the British Army advances on San Gimignano, Arabella passionately defends her beloved frescoes from demolition by German troops, aided by Georgie, Lady Hester and the rest of the Scorpioni. Luca, now serving as the Scottish commander's Italian interpreter, is reunited with these women from his youth. Mary’s heart is warmed at seeing Luca in British uniform. He has, at long last, become the ‘English gentleman’ his father would have wished. An epitaph explains, Luca went on to become ‘an artist’ and ‘helped in the making of this film’ – ergo, Zeffirelli revealing to his audience the very personal nature of his story.

At intervals, Tea with Mussolini is an intimate and refined drama. Given its weighty cast, something is decidedly missing.  John Mortimer and Zeffirelli’s screenplay, based loosely on a few chapters from Zeffirelli’s autobiography, skirts the gravity of the war, offering only the shallowest of incidents where our stars are sincerely placed in peril. In the first act, Zeffirelli’s glacial pace evolves the various characters, presumably to allow the audience enough time to get to know them. Problem: none are interesting enough or worth getting to know. Despite each actresses’ pedigree, the combined experience of having them all vying for screen time yields to a rather clumsy integration of half-baked ideas; the Mortimer/Zeffirelli screenplay, definitely playing it safe. Tea with Mussolini is an ensemble drama – yes; but one where not a single performance is distinguished along the way.  Zeffirelli’s prowess is more than a tad stifled. Instead of a gradual development of ideas and narrative bloodlines, the picture devolves into an endless montage of only intermittently engaging vignettes, collectively to play out like a Cole’s Notes version, excised from a movie we never get to experience. Relying far too much on star power to carry the load, Zeffirelli gets a lot of mileage from Cher and Maggie Smith, but utterly wastes Plowright and Tomlin. Baird Wallace makes a success of the adult Luca, although he remains the only male character herein to be clearly delineated among the other cardboard cutouts. In the end, Tea with Mussolini is an interesting experiment, but one not entirely realized.

MGM/Fox Home Video’s DVD is disappointing. In the UK, Tea with Mussolini has received a Blu-ray release, distributed via Universal Home Video. The results, alas, continue to lag. The Blu-ray is also ‘region B’ locked. So, for review purposes, we are covering the ‘Region A’ DVD only. The anamorphic widescreen image, framed in 1.66:1 is overly soft. David Watkin’s original cinematography had a gauzy/dreamy appeal, with a robust palette of sun-kissed oranges, ruddy browns and lush greens. The DVD washes all of these into tepid hues that almost adopt a sepia underlay. Flesh tones are mostly pinkish and wan. Worse, edge enhancement rears its ugly head. Film grain is never naturally rendered, but exhibits a harsh characteristic, looking gritty rather than refined. Contrast is weak. The audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital and adequately represented for a dialogue-driven soundtrack. There are NO extras. Bottom line: Zeffirelli, a gifted film maker, drops the ball on Tea with Mussolini, perhaps, too ardent and too close to the material to objectively make the rest of us care. The DVD is inadequate in practically every way. Pass and be glad that you did!

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

2.5

EXTRAS

0