Tea with Mussolini (Maggie Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

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