What does an old, artsy Italian film have to tells us about truth in America? Let’s take a look.
In 1962 – a moment in time when meaning was often the defining factor in both film and literature – Italian author Georgio Bassani penned The Garden of Finzi-Continis. Turned into a movie in 1970 by director Vittorio De Sica, the story portrays the downward spiral of a wealthy Jewish family in Ferrara, Italy, caught in the encroaching, genocidal storm of Nazi fanaticism during the 1930’s.
The Continis own a fine, walled estate in the heart of the city, replete with gardens, tennis courts, and pools. There they enjoy tennis, games, and intellectual pursuits as the world around them crumbles into murderous violence. Of this, they take no notice. I saw the film as a young man and – despite my youth and the difficulty of sub-titles – clearly understood the obvious self-deception and willful evasion involved in the Continis’ downfall.
For the Continis and their friends, the story does not end well, as the agents of doom finally make their inevitable house-call. I can recall at the time shaking my head and wondering how they could have deceived themselves so completely. How could they have ignored the coming storm, obvious as it appeared to the entire movie audience – the clanging Nazi sirens just outside the walls, the escalating persecution of Jews, and so on, and so on. The story was a profound portrayal of just how individuals – and, yes, whole nations – looked the other way as the Nazis rose to power, consumed in hopeful worlds of self-delusion until it was entirely too late. The film won the Academy Award in 1972 for Best Foreign Film.
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