The story of a wealthy Jewish family willfully shut off from the rest of the world and in reckless denial of fascism’s hold on the Italian people, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is narrated by Giorgio, a frequent guest of the family and the only one who foresees the impending and unstoppable forces that will shatter their cloistered world. Combining luminous flashbacks with the present, the film’s structure resembles De Sica’s own comeback: the once great director who was written off in the 1960’s re-emerges out of the past with this late, luxuriant masterpiece.