My Cup of Tea

I have not seen The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and didn’t intend to. The idea of seeing a bunch of elderly actresses hamming it up did not appeal.

Now I’ve changed my mind as I saw Tea with Mussolini this week. It’s about a group of English and American women who choose to remain in Florence when Italy joins the war. They are a feisty bunch known to the Italians as the Scorpioni because of their sharp tongues. The central plot is their adoption of an orphaned Italian boy, Luca, who eventually joins the Resistance and is an interpreter for The Scots Guards when Gimignano, where they are being held, is liberated by the Allies. (It grates when a senior officer in The Scots Guards speaks in a Scottish accent.)

I really enjoyed the film, albeit I thought the story highly improbable. Only when the credits roll at the end did I get a clue it might be based on real people and real events. Luca “helped in making this film”. It is an autobiographical film by Franco Zeffirelli and most of the Scorpioni are real people. John Mortimer wrote the script with Zeffirelli.

Here are some of the most notable members of the cast: Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlinson, and Michael Williams. Maggie Smith goes to tea with Mussolini and believes he will protect her for much of the film. She frequently reminds anyone who cares to hear “my husband was His Britannic Majesty’s representative in Rome”, reminding me of at least one ambassador’s widow.