Tea With Mussolini (April 20th and 22nd at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[TEA WITH MUSSOLINI screens Thursday April 20th at 8:30 pm and Saturday April 22nd at 7:10 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

In 1999, Cher went the Merchant-Ivory route in TEA WITH MUSSOLINI, a very proper, genteel drama, said to be based on incidents in the early life of the UK-Italian co-production’s director, Franco Zeffirelli.

No, Cher does not attempt an English accent, but appropriately plays a flamboyant American showgirl-turned-gold-digger, part of a mini-society of high-born ladies hanging around the piazzas of Florence, Italy, in the 1930s. Mostly English aristocrats - and mostly acted by grandes dammes of British drama such as Joan Plowright and Judi Dench - these aged Italophiles drink tea, throw parties, have affairs, pamper their dogs/children, visit Roman ruins, restore art frescoes, and otherwise have it pretty easy.  Until the rise of strutting Nazi ally Benito Mussolini drags their precious Italy into fascism.

Burlesque

Review by Pamela Zoslov

They don’t make gay icons like they used to. In Burlesque, a new musical directed by Steve Antin and largely set in a Sunset Strip “neo-burlesque” club, we witness the contrast between the larger-than-life diva – Cher – and the newer model, the big-voiced but ultimately bland warbler Christina Aguilera. The presence of Cher, in all her iconic splendor, is all that redeems this shopworn show-business fable, a tepid Cabaret/Chicago/Dreamgirls/Showgirls mashup that is essentially a vanity showcase for Aguilera, who has negligible acting ability but is the movie’s star and an executive producer.