“The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” Returns to Cinemas: Vittorio De Sica’s Masterpiece Restored in 4K for Holocaust Remembrance Day

Coming to theaters on January 27, for the first time in a 4K restored version in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece The Garden of the Finzi-Continis returns to the big screen. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1971 and, the following year, the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Distributed by Filmclub Distribuzione by Minerva Pictures, the film is based on Giorgio Bassani’s novel of the same name and spans the years 1938 to 1943, recounting the story of the Finzi-Continis, a wealthy Jewish family from the upper bourgeoisie of Ferrara. While the film received awards, acclaim, and widespread success, it also drew criticism at the time, including from Bassani himself.

Morando Morandini (Il Messaggero) criticized the portrayal as overly sentimental and historically superficial, whereas Kezich (Corriere della Sera) called it one of the director’s best works in years. As for Giorgio Bassani, the author, who based the novel on parts of his own life and family, collaborated on the dialogues and screenplay. However, disagreements and misunderstandings arose during production, particularly over the explicit portrayal of Micòl and Malnate’s relationship—including a love scene absent in the novel. Bassani reportedly disliked the “compromised” depiction of his beloved Micòl and requested that his name be removed from the film’s credits.

What is the film about? It tells the story of this affluent and refined Jewish family from Ferrara who, in 1938, faces the impact of racial laws that ban Jews from the local tennis club. As a response, the family allows the friends of their two children, Micòl (Dominique Sanda) and Alberto (Helmut Berger), who is secretly gay, to gather at the private tennis court in their villa’s garden. Among the guests are Giorgio (Lino Capolicchio playing Bassani himself), who has long been in love with Micòl, and Giampiero Malnate (Fabio Testi), a communist from Milan.

The film features several iconic scenes, such as Giorgio sneaking into the villa’s garden and discovering Micòl’s secret relationship with Malnate, who spends one last night with her before leaving for Russia. Another powerful moment depicts the Finzi-Continis being taken from their home by fascists and brought to a school building. De Sica masterfully conveys their fate: no torture chambers or decrepit prisons—just the humiliation of finding a seat in a classroom crowded with fellow Jews, their eyes filled with fear for the future.

Finally, the film includes a memorable line delivered by Giorgio’s father (a towering performance by Romolo Valli), a disillusioned former fascist, who tells his son:
“In life, if someone wants to truly understand how things stand in this bizarre world, they must die at least once. And so, it’s better to die young, while there’s still plenty of time to rise up and be reborn. Understanding as an old man is far worse. You don’t have the time to start from scratch. And our generation has made so many missteps along the way.”