One Paragraph Movie Review: The Garden of the Finzi-Cortinis

One hundred and sixty-ninth film: The Garden of the Finzi-Cortinis, an Italian film made in 1970, set just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, and completely stuffed to the brim with absolute spunks. While politically I learned a lot about the plight of Jews in Italy under Mussolini, and was definitely interested in the narratives about class and education, it was nonetheless incredibly easy to be distracted by the wall-to-wall aesthetic excellence of the cast. This is a bit of a pre-war story, a bit of a romance, and a bit of a tree-based biology lesson, making you wonder throughout if the relentless games of tennis are symbolic of something else or just plain tennis. Not bad at all, but I’ve filled my quota of both let faults and longing looks for the month. Two and three quarter accidental wet t-shirt competitions out of five.