Events
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Thursday, January 25, 2007
A Day of Remembrance 2007
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
The Istituto and the Holocaust Center of Northern California will commemorate the Day of Remembrance with a presentation of Vittorio De Sica’s film The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini), which is based on Giorgio Bassani’s book by the same name. The screening will be preceded by a presentation by Nora Contini, a member of the local Jewish community and a descendant of the Finzi-Contini family. In an article in the The Jewish Weekly (November 19, 1999), Nora Contini writes, “Contini is an old Italian Jewish name. The book on which the film was based was written by Giorgio Bassani, a contemporary of my father's. The book, however, is a novel, and like most novels it is a mosaic of fact and fiction. The name is ours, but the story is a blend of many families and many fantasies.”
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Italy, 1970, 93 min.) by Vittorio De Sica with Fabio Testi, Helmut Berger, Dominique Sanda, Lino Capolicchio, Romolo Valli, Edoardo Toniolo, Ettore Geri, Cinzia Bruno, and Alessandro D'Alatri. Based loosely on the acclaimed novel by Giorgio Bassani, the film stirs incisive nostalgia, vividly evoking the tender period before the horrors that followed. It takes place in Ferrara in the years before World War II when a select few friends were allowed in the lush villa and garden of the Jewish Finzi-Contini family. Soon their lives are overwhelmed by the collective tragedy of the war, and the Finzi-Contini family is deported to Germany.
In 1971 the film won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as an Orso d’Oro at the Berlin Film Festival and a David di Donatello for best film.
Admission is free.
Information
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007
Time: 6.30 PM
Location: Istituto Italiano di Cultura
Organized by: Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the Holocaust Center of Northern California
In collaboration with:
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