The Gold Rimmed Glasses

Gli occhiali d'oro (internationally released as The Gold Rimmed Glasses) is a 1987 Italian drama film directed by Giuliano Montaldo, starring Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett and Valeria Golino. Set in Ferrara 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's novel The Gold Rimmed Spectacles (Gli occhiali d'oro). It entered the main competition at the 1987 Venice Film Festival, where it won two Golden Osellas for Best Costume Design and Best Set Design. For his soundtrack Ennio Morricone won the David di Donatello for Best Score. Plot The corpse of a man, drowned in the river Po, 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 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.