Tea with Mussolini (starring Maggie Smith)

Browsing through Amazon and checking my recommendations, as you do, I kept seeing the DVD ‘Tea with Mussolini’. This is probably because both Maggie Smith and Judi Dench are in it, and I have thoroughly enjoyed all their films, particularly when they appear together. I wasn’t too sure about the setting of this one though, or the evident focus on Italian politics as it related to one of the World Wars.

However, eventually I succumbed to curiosity and put it on my wishlist. I was given it for my recent birthday, and we decided to watch it last night. I did not realise until afterwards that it’s not just historical fiction, but a semi-autobiographical film based on the memories of the director, Franco Zeffirelli.

The main focus of the first part of the story is a group of middle-aged women, mostly British, who are well established in the upper class echelons of Italian society. Maggie Smith is brilliant as Lady Hester, the self-defined leader of the group, as she is the widow of a former ambassador. Judi Dench is delightful as a bohemian artist, determined to preserve ancient frescoes. Joan Plowright is also excellent as Mary, secretary to a somewhat promiscuous Italian man. His illegitimate son Luca lost his mother recently but hates living in an orphanage.

Luca, we learn at the end of the film, is the young Zeffirelli, and he is taken to heart by the elderly women. Mary looks after him and the others help with his care and financing, particularly a flamboyant American women called Elsa. She is played (a little surprisingly, to us) by the singer Cher. We had not remembered that she is also a competent actress.

As war looms, the British are advised to leave Italy but this band of women refuses to depart. Lady Hester is convinced that her friend Mussolini will look after them, and manages to get an audience with him. However, it becomes increasingly clear as the film progresses that he has forgotten her entirely.

It’s a bit difficult to work out what the plot is, exactly; it’s a coming-of-age story as far as Luca is concerned, and it’s also a fascinating contrast between the advance of the war and the determination of the band of elderly women to keep their integrity and their traditions. Even when they are taken into custody they want tea at four o’clock…

The pace is good, the settings realistic. The women are exaggerated, but perhaps that’s how a boy like Luca would have seen them. Luca himself - played by Charlie Lucas as a child, and Baird Wallace as a young man - is excellent, his expressions as speaking, sometimes, as his actions and words. While I found some of the action a bit tense, I appreciated the gentle humour in some of the interactions, particularly those involving Lady Hester.

All in all, we thought it an unusual and interesting evening’s viewing. The rating is PG, and I think that’s fair, though the war scenes, and one mild bedroom scene could be disturbing to younger children. I can’t imagine it would be of interest to anyone under the age of about twelve or thirteen anyway.

Recommended.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews

Hampstead (starring Diane Keaton)

Every so often I browse my recommendations on Amazon, and come across films I have never heard of. That happened earlier in the year when it suggested I might like ‘Hampstead’. Diane Keaton stars, and I have liked some of her other films. The reviews were mostly positive, so I put it on my wishlist and was given it for my recent birthday.

There seems to have been quite a spate of films about middle-aged or elderly people in recent years. Or perhaps it’s just that I’m seeing them because I have liked or bought others. On the whole we like them, as we’re in that stage of life, and this was quite a positive one on the whole.

Keaton stars as the recently-widowed Emily who lives in a pleasant block of flats in Hampstead in the UK. She’s a bit of a misfit; the only American, in the area, although she has evidently lived there for many years. The other upper-middle class very British women in the building try to involve her in their community meetings and campaigns, but she’s not really all that interested. Nor does she want them to introduce her to suitable gentlemen friends…

Wandering around the neighbourhood she comes across a shack where it’s rumoured an old tramp lives. And indeed, when we first meet Donald (Brendon Gleeson) he’s just received a letter from the council, asking him to leave. He has a flourishing garden and isn’t doing anything wrong… but he looks like a down-and-out.

So the main part of the story is about these two misfits meeting, irritating each other, becoming unlikely friends, and learning surprising things about each other. It’s also about a battle to save Donald’s home, one which catches the imagination of the local people and gets quite out of hand. At a deeper level it’s about pride, and independence, and the importance of accepting help sometimes. It’s also about being free to be oneself, to flout conventions, to move beyond the strict confines of society’s expectations.

Diane Keaton’s role is not very different from other parts I’ve seen her in, but she does it very well and her personality fits that of Emily ideally. I didn’t remember seeing Brendon Gleeson anywhere else; he is wonderful in his role, and there’s quite an onscreen chemistry between the two. Other characters are somewhat caricatured in their enthusiastic snobbery or downright unpleasantness, but that allows for some comic moments; the pace is excellent, I thought, and the whole well scripted and beautifully made.

Sometimes I didn’t catch all the conversation; it wasn’t that Keaton’s accent is hard to understand but there was quite a lot of muttering. Perhaps that was intended, so as to give the impression of conversation rather than any important dialogue. I don’t think I missed anything.

The rating is 12, which we thought about right. There’s a fair amount of bad language, although I don’t recall anything else that would make it unsuitable for children; there's a love story but it involves implications rather than anything explicit. However it’s unlikely to be of much interest to anyone below the age of about thirty. Overall we enjoyed it very much.

Apparently this film is based on a true story, but we decided not to watch the extras so don’t know any details.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews