The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is a 1970 historical drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. The screenplay by Ugo Pirro and Vittorio Bonicelli adapts Italian Jewish author Giorgio Bassani's 1962 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, about the lives of an upper-class Jewish family in Ferrara during the Fascist era. The film stars Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda, Helmut Berger, Romolo Valli, and Fabio Testi in his breakthrough role. An Italian production with West German financing, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis was entered into the 21st Berlin International Film Festival and won the Golden Bear. It received positive acclaim from international critics, winning the 1972 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and earning a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film holds a 94% review score on Rotten Tomatoes. Plot In 1938 in Ferrara, the Finzi-Continis are a rich Jewish family living in a mansion set in a park. When Jews are banned from the city's tennis club, the family allow the friends of their two children, Micòl and the sickly Alberto, to use their private tennis court. Among them are Giorgio, son of a Jewish businessman, and Giampiero, a communist and a gentile. Giorgio has been in love with Micòl since early adolescence, but she is ambivalent. As war approaches, Giorgio's brother moves to France to pursue his studies while Giorgio, close to graduation, decides to stay in Ferrara and, when Jews are banned from the university library, the Finzi-Continis allow him to use their private library. Micòl leaves to stay in Venice and on her return to Ferrara she definitively rejects Giorgio.