MovieChat Forums > Un tè con Mussolini (1999) Discussion > Lily Tomlin's role

Lily Tomlin's role

posted 10 years ago by bruno-32
2 replies | jump to latest

That's what I call type casting. :D I must have missed something...how come she was there? Was she there as a tourist? How blatantly she showed her character for that time period and seemed to be well liked, particularly by the well bred English women. Also, what was that scene where the guy was dressed as a woman and made a scene about it by taking off his clothes and yelled to all ..."I am a man, I am a man!" Was he being disguised as a woman cause he was a Jew? I guess I must have dozed off at times. :D aside from that, I did enjoy this movie the part that I was 'alert'.

[–] TheEtiquette 10 years ago

Lily Tomlin's character was an American archaeologist and apparently a guide in the Uffizi gallery. In the 1930's there was a great influx of American "art tourists" to Italy, and as one of the characters notes quite early in the film: "The Americans are back in Italy. That's where all the bargains are now."

The man dressed as a woman was the grandson of Maggie Smith's character Lady Hester. As the war broke out he was dressed as a woman because the ladies thought he would be treated more harshly if the Italians knew he was a man. As much as I enjoy the film, this was a ridiculous plot line if there ever was.

The truth is neither here nor there. It's the look of the thing that matters!

[–] BigMom (1930) 3 years ago

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