MovieChat Forums > Un tè con Mussolini (1999) Discussion > Another Hollywood bombastic anglo-saxian...

Another Hollywood bombastic anglo-saxian hoopla...

posted 18 years ago by drexl10
29 replies | jump to latest

No I did not find this movie much entertaining. The reason is the smug superiority of the brits and the americans coming to save the day. It´s the first and the last time I´ve seen old women with beatific expressions on their faces at the news of war followed by the requisite flagwaving music when it´s announced america is joining the war. The antagonists are all bumbling spineless clowns or slimy and devious. In fact the whole work reeks of a superiority of the anglo-saxons who is helping the poor yokels learning good manners and taking care of their cultural values. Il Duce looks like he has tics and everybody else scrapes their feet and bows to these pestering hags for no other reason than that they are there.

Apart from the badly veiled cultural superioritycomplex this is a film packed with great acting and lovely canerawork. It´s just not an enough interesting story and an irritant.

[–] gosundancekid 17 years ago

drexl10

i guess you've misunderstood it completely. the film is criticising the same that you are

you wrote, "No I did not find this movie much entertaining. The reason is the smug superiority of the brits and the americans coming to save the day. It´s the first and the last time I´ve seen old women with beatific expressions on their faces at the news of war followed by the requisite flagwaving music when it´s announced america is joining the war.

The antagonists are all bumbling spineless clowns or slimy and devious. In fact the whole work reeks of a superiority of the anglo-saxons who is helping the poor yokels learning good manners and taking care of their cultural values. Il Duce looks like he has tics and everybody else scrapes their feet and bows to these pestering hags for no other reason than that they are there.

Apart from the badly veiled cultural superioritycomplex this is a film packed with great acting and lovely canerawork. It´s just not an enough interesting story and an irritant."

[–] gerryroe 16 years ago

What part of Hollywood is Cinecitti Studios in again?

[–] bachemar 16 years ago

LOL...yeah, and Franco Zeffirelli was born London and raised in L.A. XD

Playing the race card is fun! :)

[–] vispateresa 16 years ago

You mean "Cinecittà"? It's in Rome, Italy.

[–] angelofvic 15 years ago

Considering it was made by an Italian director and an Italian studio and is the story of the Italian director's life in Italy, I fail to see how the film even remotely qualifies as a "Hollywood bombastic anglo-saxian hoopla."
. . . . . . . .

[–] diayag 15 years ago

Spot on, angelofvic. When I read slightly garbled English posts I try to "hear" the nationality of speaker. Drexl10 is not Italian, is missing the magnanimity of a Frenchman, I would guess he (sounds like a he) is from a Slavic nation, but not Poland. Tiny Ireland writes earnestly about how the Irish Celts saved civilization, and that's fine. Everyone has their own slant that reinforces nationalistic pride, hopefully not to the degree we kill each other over it. Italy does not seem to have a problem with their often bizarre and charismatic rulers, current events proving the point. I believe showing them as bumbling is to show that most Italians are NOT like that, only the bumblers blindly follow Il Duce or whoever. It is also not unreasonable that the biggest country with the largest population and largest military force involved in the war should be presented, or represent itself, as the heroes riding in on the white horse.

[–] traveller007 14 years ago

I just this instant saw the scene where the women hug and are happy that America is in the war? The Italians wonder at the same moment...America is our Enemy?

The are incredulous and not entirely pleased.

Everything about this scene was true and essential and vital.

The poster hasn't a clue what he is talking about.

Traveller

[–] babybates 9 years ago

EXACTLY!!

[–] thebabe3 9 years ago

I loved it, period. How entertaining is this group of women? Amazing performances by all.

[–] dtechba 13 years ago

Mussolini was an idiot when it came to war (and for that matter most everything else related to governance). Even his allies thought that so stating that the movie is smug, misrepresentative or anything else like that is flat out wrong and misinformed. You might need to learn some history. Don't let your obvious anglo saxon bias get in the way of facts.

[–] hugh1971 13 years ago

The 'beatific expressions' when the old ladies hear that the US has joined the war are hardly surprising. Once the US entered the war it was only a matter of time before the Axis was defeated. Until then, Britain had stood alone against Germany (all other countries in the world either being allied with Germany, neutral, or too small or far away to help). Not only were they citizens of a country that was standing alone against its enemies - they were living in enemy territory!

[–] pc-daisy 11 years ago

So yes, Britain stood alone, but just want to mention that the Commonwealth countries like Australia and New Zealand certainly played their part too. Our loses were huge relative to our populations. Churchill and King George V1 did all they could to persuade America to join the Allies. By the time of Pearl Harbour, Britain had already fought the famous battles like the Battle of Britain for example.

Sorry for late reply, but just watched the film. I get more than a little irked when Commonwealth nations are never mentioned.

[–] ducdebrabant 12 years ago

I'm sorry you feel the Fascists aren't portrayed positively enough, but they lost the war, so they no longer get to run the Italian film industry, and this is an Italian-produced film, based on an Italian screenplay, with an Italian director. Perhaps you failed to notice that it portrays Italian resistance fighters? It is hardly unfair to Italy. Even so, however, it so happens that the allies, not the Italians, drove the Germans out of Italy. Even after Mussolini was deposed in a coup (when the allies were already on Italian soil), the Germans rescued him, killed those who deposed him, and put him back in power. History is history, despite whatever Fascist revisionists may resent about it. Just be glad you live in a world where you can't be arrested for attacking the wrong movie... no thanks to Mussolini.

The Republican Plan: repeal all reform; collect payoffs; go yachting (but not in the Gulf).h

[–] PoppyTransfusion 11 years ago

I'm sorry you feel the Fascists aren't portrayed positively enough, but they lost the war, so they no longer get to run the Italian film industry

Fatima had a fetish for a wiggle in her scoot

[–] GoUSN 12 years ago

It's been six years since your post. Have you educated yourself since then?

Because otherwise I have to wonder what on earth are you talking about?

The US and the UK combined to save civilization. Don't count the USSR/Russia in this mix. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the Soviet Union was still allied with Hitler.

Language is the tie that binds. The US and the UK, and the rest of the English-speaking world have always been allied.

[–] gillesxpsg 12 years ago

Please, don't flatter yourselves, Russia and Britain did most of the fighting, and by the time pearl harbour was attacked the USSR had already lost millions of men fighting the Nazi's. The Russians have always been loyal allies to us, not the yanks however. You harbour IRA terrorists, you kidnap our subjects and while our young men die in your pointless war, you won't even support us on the Falklands.
The ultimate betrayal.
P.S We have not always been "allies" you started that silly war of independence didn't you?

[–] Mandyjam 12 years ago

Now, now gilles, don't get stuck into our allies!

Actually I loved the portrayal of the German officer who was so utterly frustrated with those silly old women, but wasn't prepared to blow them up, and waved goodbye to them as he went.

"great minds think differently"

[–] GoUSN 11 years ago

You have a poor grasp of history. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, the USSR was still allied with Hitler's Germany. Do you even know that the USSR and Nazi Germany were allies??????

[–] m_e_c 11 years ago

Operation Barbarossa (Hitler's invasion of the USSR) commenced on June 22nd 1941.

I shouldn't have to tell you the date of Pearl Harbor! You're a US Navy man.

For our other dear readers Pearl Harbor was attacked on Sunday Dec 7th 1941

[–] PterryFan 10 years ago

Another Brit here, don't listen to gillesxpg, she isn't representative of British thought.

Yes the U.S. and the U.K. are close allies and have been for a very long time .

Even now we're fighting alongside each other .

As to the O.P. they seem to have some sort of national inferiority complex .

Their issues are obviously personal and they only used this movie as an excuse to air their bigotry .

[–] gillesxpsg 10 years ago

Not close allies, a US repeatadly asks why we think ourselves to be special. Yes fighting alongside each other only what it´s in the US interest. US officially neutral in the Falklands, and supported IRA terrorists. This isńt an alliance this is servitude. A very long time? Since when?

[–] PterryFan 10 years ago

They were allied to Argentina as well so they couldn't fight them, but they equipped us with the latest Sidewinder missile, cos we had the older version, without which we may very well have lost the war.

They also diverted spy satellites to orbit over S.America/the Falklands to give us valuable intelligence.

It is also very likely that they assisted us in other ways that haven't been made public.

They also gave us one hell of a lot of assistance in both World Wars, without which we'd almost certainly lost the second world war.

If the soviets had won they wouldn't have been liberators, they would have been very similar to the Nazis, they were originally allied to Germany and invaded Poland from the East while Germany invaded from the West.

They only started fighting them when their allies turned on them, and the areas they over ran they occupied by force for decades afterwards.

Also the Americans were the main bulwark against Russia during the cold war.
We had forced Germany to disarm, and France and Italy would have been our main allies along with tiny little Holland , Belgium plus a few others.

Work it out for yourself.

Yes some Presidents playing politics have been lukewarm about the "Special Relationship", but along with the Canadians, Aussies, and Kiwis we're all one family , just living in different streets.

Yes there were gullible Irish Americans (Known interestingly by real Irish people by the derisive name "Plastic Paddys" ) who were under the impression that the I.R.A. were brave little leprechauns somehow fighting against the nasty Brits, 9/11 changed all that .

I always wondered why successive British governments didn't educate the ordinary Americans as to the truth of the I.R.A. bully boys and their atrocities against innocent civilians, as many of them believed that we occupying N.I. , not that the majority population of N.Is.population would literally have fought to the death not to become part of the Irish Republic.

But this site is about movies , not politics, so I'll leave it there .

[–] gillesxpsg 10 years ago

They were not allied to Argentina, and even if they were they should have attacked them since being allied to Serbia didn't stop Serbia from getting bombed. The US tried to make Britain "sit at the table" before Thatcher decided to send the task force which was as obscene as if some country were to tell the US to sit down and talk anfter pearl harbour.
US help was negligible considering that we got very good intelligence from New Zealand and Chile.
The Argentine army was incredibly weak therefore in either case it was unlikely that the task would have failed.
The US bled the British empire dry before entering the second world war in terms of loans which were not benelovent or interest free.
Britain didn't exactly win the second world war, Poland was not free after the war and the British empire was about to collapse as a result. We needn't have got involved in the cold war, we could have adopted a policy similar to that of De Gaulle.
Those gullible Irish americans got President Clinton elected who in turn forced Britain to surrender to the IRA when asked why the US was interfering in our affairs a US official said "why do you think you are any different to Yugoslavia?"
One must remember the US as a country was born out of treason and opportunism, they only decided to love liberty after we kicked the French and Spanish out of America.

[–] PterryFan 10 years ago

You obviously have many issues on the subject of the U.S., but this is a movie site, not a political site, so I'd recommend that you vent your spleen on somewhere more suitable.

You have quite a few innacuracies in your post, but I'm not wasting my life correcting them .

Your views are most definitely minority ones as far as the British public are concerned .

I'm not getting into a long drawn out debate with you, so I'll wish you farewell .

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] sojourner22 10 years ago

Are you aware that this film is fictionally autobiographical on the part of the very talented Italian director Franco Zeffirelli? I would recommend reading his entire autobiography, which I found quite illuminating. I wouldn't call this a Hollywood film at all. Who could be more quintessentially Italian than the man who lived the story, wrote and directed it, and filmed it entirely in the places where the factual aspects of the story actually took place?

[–] thebabe3 9 years ago

Based on a life recollection. \This is a movie! A bit of poetic license is allowed for entertaining purposes.
The film is definitely not "Hollywood" and the fact that it didn't get nominated for Oscar is just that reason. Thank goodness.
I loved this film which will be in one of my favourites for all time as will "Return to Me" which is a small but wonderful film and Bonnie Hunt who directed it should have been nominated for her directing skills, but then, as posted here, the pretentious Hollywood crowd doesn't know S...T!