An
Co-writer/Director: Franco Zeffirelli (autobiography)
Stars: Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlin.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120857/
disc arrived today
The film made it seem as though the boy (young Zeffirelli, named Luca for this story) only spent a year or two with the English ladies before being sent to school in Austria by his father. He returns as a late teen while they are in detention in Italy, and is part of the liberating party of Scottish army. This Wikipedia article talks about it a little, with the real names of his parents. Even the film accurately shows him being semi-orphaned, but his father cannot take him home to his wife.
IMDb trivia: "this was the first time actress Cher actually sang in a movie." It was very informal, flirting with a man: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Written by Jerome Kern, Otto A. Harbach. Well sung.
If anything, this film might have too many characters and too little depth of character. But it has plenty of material about conditions in Italy for "enemy" civilians (the elderly English women, and American Cher) before and during the war.
Visually pleasing, and terrific acting, of course: all 5 of the principal women have Oscars or nominations (for other films).
Rated 6.9 (10,220)
distr. indie (theatrical), MGM (vhs/dvd), dir. Zeffirelli; 7-
