Synopsis: Vittorio De Sica's beautifully photographed masterpiece, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, is a return to the fine dramas (SHOESHINE, THE BICYCLE THIEF) of his early days as a director. Based on the autobiographical novel by Giorgio Bassani, the film covers the lives of several Jewish... Vittorio De Sica's beautifully photographed masterpiece, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS, is a return to the fine dramas (SHOESHINE, THE BICYCLE THIEF) of his early days as a director. Based on the autobiographical novel by Giorgio Bassani, the film covers the lives of several Jewish characters from the onset of Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts in 1938 to the arrest and deportation of all of the Italian Jews in 1943. The lead character, Giorgio (Lino Capolicchio), is a middle-class student invited by the fabulously wealthy Finzi-Continis to research his thesis in the family's private library. While pursuing his studies, Giorgio falls in love with the family's beautiful daughter, Micol (Dominique Sanda), who rebuffs his advances. Meanwhile, Mussolini is slowly dissolving the rights of all Italian Jews, though the Finzi-Contini family appears unable to accept this fact, let alone deal with its consequences. Viewed from the perfect vision of hindsight, the GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS is more than just a story of unrequited love set in turbulent times--it is a tragic, cautionary account of how the most elevated and aristocratic members of a society can ignore their approaching destruction. [More]