The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

This beloved Italian drama, based on the novel by Giorgio Bassani, is set amid the rise of fascism in the 1930s. The wealthy, intellectual Finzi-Contini family’s estate serves as a gathering place for the local Jewish community, as they try to take shelter from growing anti-Semitism. Ordinary tennis clubs become off-limits to Italian Jews, but such policies prove unenforceable behind the tall, stone walls of the garden. While romance blossoms between Giorgio (Lino Capolicchio) and Micol (Dominique Sanda), the increasingly hostile reality surrounding them sets in. Vittorio De Sica won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but his changes to the source novel led to friction with Bassani, who demanded his name be removed from the opening credits. Nevertheless, the film remains a seminally evocative and righteously unsentimental account of the road to fascism. 4K DCP digital restoration by Cinecittà, supported by Anthony Morato.