''Gli occhiali d'oro'' (internationally released as ''The Gold Rimmed Glasses'') is a
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
Italian
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Giuliano Montaldo
Giuliano Montaldo (born 22 February 1930) is an Italian film director.
Biography
While he was still a young student, Montaldo was recruited by the director Carlo Lizzani for the role of leading actor in the film ''Achtung! Banditi!'' (1951). ...
, starring
Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret (; 1 October 1930 – 23 November 2006) was a French film actor.
Life and career
Noiret was born in Lille, France, the son of Lucy (Heirman) and Pierre Noiret, a clothing company representative. He was an indifferent student and ...
,
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, director and producer. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupil ...
and
Valeria Golino
Valeria Golino (born 22 October 1965) is an Italian actress and film director. She is best known to English-language audiences for her roles in ''Rain Man'', ''Big Top Pee-wee'' and the two ''Hot Shots!'' films, particularly the olive-in-the-bell ...
. Set in
Ferrara
Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...
and in a nearby seaside resort in 1938, the plot follows a Jewish student and a homosexual doctor who suffer persecution in Fascist Italy. The film is an adaptation of
Giorgio Bassani
Giorgio Bassani (4 March 1916 – 13 April 2000) was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, editor, and international intellectual.
Biography
Bassani was born in Bologna into a prosperous Jewish family of Ferrara, where he spent his childhood wit ...
's novel ''The Gold Rimmed Spectacles'' (''Gli occhiali d'oro'').
It entered the main competition at the 1987
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
, where it won two
Golden Osella
The Golden Osella is the name of several awards given at the Venice Film Festival. They are awarded irregularly and in various categories such as directing, screenwriting, cinematography, and technical contributions.
The name derives from the ''o ...
s for Best Costume Design and Best Set Design.
For his soundtrack
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...
won the
David di Donatello
The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's ''David'', a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the ''Accademia del Cinema Italiano'' (The Academy of Italian Cinema). There are 26 award cat ...
for
Best Score.
Plot
The corpse of a man, drowned in the
river Po
The Po ( , ; la, Padus or ; Ancient Ligurian: or ) is the longest river in Italy. It flows eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps. The river's length is either or , if the Maira, a right bank tributary, is included. Th ...
, is brought to shore by fishermen. The man's broken gold rimmed glasses lay stuck in the mud next to him. His story is told in flashback.
Ferrara, 1938 – Doctor Athos Fadigati is a middle age
otolaryngologist
Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspeciality within medicine that deals with the surgical a ...
with a prosperous pediatric practice. Cultured and well off, he belongs to the city's bourgeois society. While walking around town, Dr Fadigati meets Nora, the only daughter of one of his friends. The warmhearted doctor purchases a painting and gives it to Nora as a gift for her ailing father. Nora is the last member of the Treves, a Jewish family whose fortune has fluctuated through the years. Nora is in love with Davide Lattes, a young literature student at the university of Bologna, who dreams of becoming a writer. Davide is also Jewish and lives comfortably with his parents and young sister. Their way of life is threatened as the fascist regime of Mussolini begins to apply antisemitic measures. Davide is worried particularly after one of his university professor is laid off for being Jewish and none came to his defense. Davide's concerns are not shared by his father, who plays down the news of the persecution of Jews in Germany. The father thinks that something similar could not take place in Italy, where the Jewish community has lived undisturbed for centuries. Nora's father dies and her attitude changes as she takes over her father's business deals. She and Davide are very much in love. One night after making love, Nora is able to tell Davide that she loves him for the first time.
Davide, as many young students in Ferrara, commutes daily by train to the university in Bologna. Twice a week, the solitary bespectacled Fadigati takes the same train. Eventually the doctor befriends the students, some of which were his patients when they were children. There are rumors around town that the bachelor doctor is homosexual. One of the students, Eraldo, is certain that the doctor is gay and he is sometimes insolent towards Fadigati. Eraldo, an amateur boxer, invites Dr. Fadigati to see him fight. Although he dislikes boxing, the doctor accepts the invitation. At the end of the boxing match, when he goes to greet the young man, Fadigati finds Eraldo taking a shower. Eraldo is ambitious and befriends Fadigati, sharing his confidences with him. Eraldo comes from a humbler background than most of his friends. He was abandoned by his father, who emigrated to America, but has been spoiled by his mother, a housemaid who has worked hard to give him what he wants. Eraldo has never gone on vacation away from Ferrara and Dr Fadigati, smitten with him, invites him to go together to a nearby resort town.
At the sea-side resort town in the Adriatic coast, the pairing of Fadigati and Eraldo arouses the malicious gossip of Signora Lavezzoli, an obnoxious but influential member of Ferrara's society. Eraldo quickly leaves the doctor alone to pursue girls. Davide, seeing Eraldo's exploitation of Fadigati and the vengeful attitude of Signora Lavezzoli, takes pity on the doctor. Carlotta, a flirty but well-intentioned friend, accompanies Davide while Nora arrives. At a gala, taking place at the local hotel, Nora is invited to dance by a fascist leader, leaving Davide alone and offended. The same night, Fadigati confronts Eraldo, who makes a scene punching the doctor in the face, leaving him bleeding and humiliated. Back in his hotel room accompanied by Davide, Fadigati discovers that Eraldo has stolen all he could. The scandal at the hotel completely destroys Fadigati's reputation.
Back in Ferrara, the fascist regime's grip over the Jewish community tightens. Davide like all Jewish students is expelled from the university. Nora breaks definitely with him; she chooses survival over love. To escape the persecution of the Jews, she decides to convert to Catholicism and to marry her fascist suitor. Davide is left heartbroken. Marked by the scandal, the life of Dr Fadigati has completely collapsed. He is outcast by his former friends and the society of Ferrara turn its back on him. Fired from the clinic where he used to work, Fadigati is morally and economically in ruins. The doctor befriends a street dog, but he is eventually abandoned even by his pet. Only Davide comes to visit the fallen doctor. They make plans for an excursion to the river Po, but it has to be cancelled due to the rain. In spite of the rain Fadigati takes a bus to the shore of the river Po and begins to walk towards his death. A title informs viewers that Nora married her fascist lover and died two years later during childbirth. Eraldo emigrated to France where he started a career as a boxer, but without success. Davide became a well-known writer. Many members of the Jewish community of Ferrara were killed in concentration camps.
Cast
*
Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret (; 1 October 1930 – 23 November 2006) was a French film actor.
Life and career
Noiret was born in Lille, France, the son of Lucy (Heirman) and Pierre Noiret, a clothing company representative. He was an indifferent student and ...
as Doctor Athos Fadigati
*
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, director and producer. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupil ...
as Davide Lattes
*
Valeria Golino
Valeria Golino (born 22 October 1965) is an Italian actress and film director. She is best known to English-language audiences for her roles in ''Rain Man'', ''Big Top Pee-wee'' and the two ''Hot Shots!'' films, particularly the olive-in-the-bell ...
as Nora Treves
*
Nicola Farron
Nicola may refer to:
People
* Nicola (name), including a list of people with the given name or, less commonly, the surname
**Nicola (artist) or Nicoleta Alexandru, singer who represented Romania at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest
* Nicola people, ...
as Eraldo
*
Stefania Sandrelli
Stefania Sandrelli (born 5 June 1946) is an Italian actress, famous for her many roles in the ''commedia all'Italiana'', starting from the 1960s. She was 14 years old when she starred in ''Divorce Italian Style'' as Angela, the cousin and love in ...
as Signora Lavezzoli
* Rade Markovic as Bruno Lattes (Davide's father)
*
Roberto Herlitzka
Roberto Herlitzka (born 2 October 1937) is an Italian theatre and film actor of Czechoslovak descent. He has appeared in 38 films since 1973. He was born in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. In 2004 he won the David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actor ...
as Professor Amos Perugia
*
Luca Zingaretti
Luca Zingaretti (; born 11 November 1961) is an Italian actor and film director, known for playing Salvo Montalbano in the '' Inspector Montalbano'' mystery series based on the character and novels created by Andrea Camilleri. Zingaretti is a na ...
as Molon
* Ivana Despotovic as Carlotta
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold Rimmed Glasses
1987 films
Films directed by Giuliano Montaldo
Italian drama films
1987 drama films
Italian LGBT-related films
Films scored by Ennio Morricone
1987 LGBT-related films
Films set in 1938
Films set in Ferrara
Films shot in Croatia
Films shot in Yugoslavia
1980s Italian-language films
1980s Italian films