A satisfying portrayal of the Scorpioni, “Tea with Mussolini” is a fascinating periodic film of Florence, Italy’s artistic culture and how those who relished it faced persecution during World War II. Director Franco Zeffirelli and writer John Mortimer make the film a bit too safe than it should be. Overall, “Tea with Mussolini” features an all-star cast and a film still worth watching!
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: Tea with Mussolini (as part of the “Cher: The Film Collection)
YEAR OF FILM RELEASE: 1998
DURATION: 117 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Color, Widescreen (1:85:1), Full Screen (1:33:1), Audio: English Mono, Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
COMPANY: United Artist/MGM/20th Century Fox
RATED: PG (Thematic Elements, Language, Brief Nudity and some Mild Violence)
RELEASE DATE: November 2, 2010
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
Written by John Mortimer
Autobiography as Franco Zeffirelli
Executive Producer: Marco Chimenz
Producer: Clive Parsons, Riccardo Tozzi, Giovannella Zannoni
Associate Producer: Pippo Pisciotto
Music by Stefano Arnaldi, Alessio Vlad
Cinematography by David Watkin
Edited by Tariq Anwar
Casting by Mirta Guarnaschelli, Emma Style
Art Direction by Carlo Centolavigna, Biagio Fersini, Fiorella Mariani
Costume Design: Anna Anni, Jenny Beavan, Alberto Spiazzi
Starring:
Cher as Elsa Morganthal Strauss-Armistan
Judi Dench as Arabella
Joan Plowright as Mary Wallace
Maggie Smith as Lady Hester Random
Lily Tomlin as Georgie Rockwell
Baird Wallace as Luca
Charlie Lucas as Luca (child)
Massimo Ghini as Paolo
Paolo Seganti as Vittorio Fanfanni
Claudio Spadaro as Mussolini
Mino Bellei as Cesare
Pre-war Florence is the place to be for proper British women who relish culture and the arts. But when World War II threatens their lifestyle, it takes a brazen American woman (Cher) to keep them in the high life and out of harm’s way.
A satisfying portrayal of the Scorpioni, “Tea with Mussolini” is a fascinating periodic film of Florence, Italy’s artistic culture and how those who relished it faced persecution during World War II. Director Franco Zeffirelli and writer John Mortimer make the film a bit too safe than it should be. Overall, “Tea with Mussolini” features an all-star cast and a film still worth watching!
“Tea with Mussolini” is an Italian/British film loosely based on a semi-autobiography by Franco Zeffirelli, who also directed the film.  As an orphan, was taken care of by the British expatriate community, a group of older women who relished the art and culture of Florence, Italy, known to many as the Scorpioni.
The film is written by John Mortimer (“Brideshead Revisited”, “The Innocents”, “Rumpole of the Bailey”) and features cinematography by David Watkin (“Chariots of Fire”, “Out of Africa”, “Moonstruck”) and features music by Stefano Arnaldi and Alessio Vlad.
The film would also feature an all-star cast with Cher (“Silkwood, “Moonstruck”, “Mermaids”), Judi Dench (“Casino Royale”, “Quantum of Solace”, “As Time Goes By”), Joan Plowright (“The Spiderwick Chronicles”, “101 Dalmatians”, “Bringing Down the House”), Maggie Smith (“Harry Potter” films, “Gosford Park”, “Hook”) and Lily Tomlin (“I Love Huckabees”, “9 to 5”, “The Celluloid Closet”).
The film marks the final ’90s film by Cher and her last major feature film that she has done before her 2010 film “Burlesque” and is the final film featured in this latest DVD box set tribute to the actress titled “Cher: The Film Collection”.
“Tea with Mussolini” takes place in 1935 and Mary Wallace, secretary for Italian businessman (played by Massimo Ghini), brings his illegitimate young son that he has never really seen, the boy Lucas (played by Charlie Lucas) to his office. But because the businessman doesn’t want his affairs being wrecked by the boy, he wants Mary to bring him to an orphanage. Mary tries to protect the boy and hope her boss shows some sort of responsibility but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. For Lucas, in his mind, he waits for his mother to come back home and get him.
As Mary tries to bring him to the orphanage, she realizes that he is too good of a boy to be left their and that there are proper people who can care for him. So, she and other British expatriates known as the Scorpioni, a group of women who are in Florence, Italy to relish Italian art and culture, take their turns to raise Lucas. The women which include Arabella (played by Judi Dench), Lady Hester Random (played by Maggie Smith) and American widow Elsa Morganthal (played by Cher). Lady Hester Random is very British, very opinionated and can not stand Elsa’s etiquette (or her American ways) but the two manage to tolerate each other.
If anything, for Lucas’ father, he feels that perhaps the stay with these women can make him an English gentleman.
As these women who love the art and culture begin to properly raise Lucas, over the years, we can see how tension starts to develop as World War II seems even more probable. The women are told to go back to the UK but they refuse. Because Lady Hester has a good relationship with Benito Mussolini (played by Claudio Spadaro) and because they are considered as a high status in the country, she feels they will be alright staying in Italy. In fact, during a cup of tea with Mussolini, he reiterates their safety in the country. Because of the unstable political climate, Lucas’ father pays for his son to go to an Austrian boarding school as he feels the future of Italy is in Germany’s hands.
The film then shows us how times have changed five years later. Luca, now a teenager (played by Baird Wallace) returns to Florence and wants to use Elsa’s trust fund that she set up for him to learn about the arts. But quickly realizes that nearly all British are fleeing the country. And not long after, Mussolini has declared war on Britain and France.
The Scorpioni’s, specifically the British expatriates who stayed in Italy, are being rounded up to go to the San Gimignano to a barracks. Meanwhile, Americans Elsa and friend Georgie Rockwell (played by Lily Tomlin) are free in Italy but using their money and influence to help their Scorpioni friends.
But as the war progresses, with the German oppression towards the Jews is known, in Italy, the oppression towards Jews start to grow that even American Elsa, a Jewish woman, tries to use her American position and her money to help the Italian Jewish people escape with fake passports.
As World War II rages on, what will happen to Elsa, the Scorpioni and Lucas?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“Tea with Mussolini” is featured in widescreen (1:85:1) and full screen (1:33:1) and provided in a flipper disc. The film definitely shows exquisite set design and looks fine on DVD but because of where the film was shot, this is a film that would feature much more detail and vibrancy in HD. But for the DVD itself, its good for DVD.
Subtitles are in English and French.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Tea with Mussolini” comes with the following special feature:
- Trailer – (2:22) The original theatrical trailer.
I was very pleased with “Tea with Mussolini” as it was a different style of World War II film which focused on how well-revered, very wealth British ex-expatriates and Americans faced uncertainty while staying in Italy during World War II. But at the same time, it makes you wonder how much of Franco Zeffirelli’s life had made it into this film and how much of it is non-fiction.
In a way, I can see how many people would find the film a bit too trite about how the film focuses on selfish, wealthy women who should have left the country to begin with during World War II and they wouldn’t have faced uncertainty.
And probably it is this naivety of these women who loved art and culture of Italy to think that their status would prevent them from being exempt by Mussolini and the military. But if there is one thing about the film that I do question is how it ended. In reality, the truth is that filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli never saw what happened to the women when they were taken to internment camps by the Italian military. Did they live? Did they die? But I suppose that with the film wanting to achieve a more happy and positive theme to it, Zeffirelli and writer John Mortimer wanted to keep things much more positive. Because if anyone had watched a Roberto Rossellini war film, we know that in Italy, life did not fare too well for the Italians during World War II.
Roger Ebert said in his review for the film that “Tea with Mussolini” had a “kind of sub-Merchant-Ivory mix of eccentric ladies and enchanting sceneries” and I would have to agree. Zeffirelli films (“Romeo and Juliet”, “Hamlet” and “La Boheme”) are films that are visually impressive onscreen, the women featured have a blend from the eccentric, the flamboyant and the normal. “Tea with Mussolini” is a film that boasts wonderful set design, location shots and manages to bring together top talent.
Personally, you have a sense that the film could be deeper than it truly is but in the sense of creating a drama, Zeffirelli tries to focus on a naive Lucas, who grows up to be attracted to Elsa and when scorned, does something terrible.  Formulaic and a film that shows its banality without drifting to far into uncharted waters, darkness or despair. To say the least, Zeffirelli and Mortimer played it safe and thus the film plays off as satisfying but nothing deeper than that.
As for Cher, this is the final film that she did in the ’90s and she would did not take in major lead roles until 2010 in “Burlesque”. Although, “Tea with Mussolini” doesn’t start out with much Cher in the beginning, she does play the pivotal role with the character of Lucas and also the American woman that ends up saving many Jews including a few of the British members of the Scorpioni.
As this review is focused more on Cher’s contribution as an actress, from her first debut in the 1967 film “Good Times” to 32-years-later with “Tea with Mussolini”, Cher not only does a wonderful job playing the eccentric woman Elsa in this film but watching it, you can’t help but feel that Cher looks absolute fantastic and was as much as a beauty now as she was when she debuted in her first film.
“Tea with Mussolini” does feature an all-star cast and a good film but other than that, the DVD is short on special features and because it is an older release, the original flipper disc is what is included on “Cher: The Film Collection”.
Overall, a worthy inclusion to this Cher tribute DVD boxset but as a DVD on its own, for a film that has so much to offer, it is a bit of a let down that there are no special features included.
