The Garden of Finzi Continis aka Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini by Giorgio Bassani – another look at this marvelous novel is at http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/note-on-garden-of-finzi-contis-directed.html - 10 out of 10

 

The Garden of Finzi Continis aka Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini by Giorgio Bassani – another look at this marvelous novel is at http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/note-on-garden-of-finzi-contis-directed.html

 

10 out of 10

 

 

The Garden of Finzi Continis is that rara avis, rare bird, a fabulous novel, included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read https://poemeglume.blogspot.com/2023/04/1000-novels-everyone-must-read.html and adapted more than successfully for the big screen, the film was nominated for multiple awards

 

As a motion picture, it took the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Motion Picture (this has been changed to international feature, I think this is the new name) was also shortlisted for Best Adapted Screenplay and it is indeed one of the best movies you can see, directed by legendary Viitorio De Sica, absolutely a memorable spectacle.

With the War in the Middle East raging as we speak, this is a powerful, compelling narrative that has anti-Semitism, discrimination at its core, as the plot takes us to 1938, to begin with, in Ferrara, Italy, just as the fascists of Benito Mussolini were imposing new restrictions, abuses on the Jewish population.

 

By the way, Italy has now a far-right leader, and those parties in power, folks that were enthralled with Mussolini and that doctrine, albeit they seem to be more restrained, at least on some subjects, and the far right is overall on the ascendant, The Economist has just had an issue with this problem at the center

Even Sweden, cherished as the bastion of progress, a role model for the rest to follow, has now support for the government from those dark corners, and look at the madness in America, where Trump is waiting to become commander-in-chief again next year, and that is just bonkers, and they have crazies everywhere

 

It looks like this note will go places, but it might escape the control and not cover much, if anything about the Finzi- Continis, let us just say that this was a rich, Jewish family, that could live isolated from the horrors on display for some time, but then the fascists thought of more traumas and – spoiler alert- they might get to them

You would better stop reading here, because having just said that the tragedy is about these initially privileged humans, who fall very low (I am also very upset about that nice Great Dane, who is seen when things become desperate tied with a cord, and probably left to suffer there) I am jumping through time and look at the present

 

Israel has been attacked by vicious, disgusting terrorists – that the BBC has qualms about calling with the proper name, they resort to militants, because they have some rules, but is this right, I wonder – and more than fourteen hundred people have been killed, the overwhelming majority of them civilians…

They have murdered babies, old folks, raped women, set their victims on fire, it is a long list of inhuman, beastly acts, which appear ‘justified’ in the eyes of some, because of the ’70 years of colonialism’, a period during which the Palestinians have had no state, and suffered at the hands of Israel’

 

I admit here to being ‘biased’, that is I am clearly on the side of the Jewish people – full disclosure, my daughter has taken some sort of test, which seems rather uncertain to me, and she came out 11% Jewish, which may make me more than 20%, seeing that she takes half from her mother, presumably

The Garden of Finzi Continis and other real stories show part of the immense suffering that Jewish people have suffered through millennia, it is not just the Holocaust, the Inquisition tortured them in particular, look at the fabulous The Netanyahus, winner of last year’s Pulitzer Prize Winner, written by brilliant Joshua Cohen http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-netanyahus-account-of-minor-and.htm

 

From this marvel and history, we learn that Jews had converted to survive, and still the Inquisition will go after them, they have been expelled, discriminated against, made to suffer, envied, and hey, look at the fantastic achievements of this small community (if we compare it with so much larger populations)

From Einstein to Oppenheimer http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/oppenheimer-by-christopher-nolan.html in art, science, literature (my favorite, and one of the world’s most glorious is Proust, who had Jewish roots) the world has to be grateful for the discoveries, masterpieces, technology and so much more, given to humanity by this brave people

 

Yet, they have been massacred and there have been cries of joy, on the streets of Arab countries, but in other dark places as well – yes, there has been mistreatment of Palestinians, but never in the gruesome, monstrous manner shown over that catastrophic weekend, they have never entered a village, city to machine gun innocents – by the way, Islam is a religion of peace, it forbids these killings

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

From To The Heritage:

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“the Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”