A Life Ahead

Communists, darling. I had to admit that I could hardly judge of him as I’d never seen him except on the other side of a Mouth-Organ but that, even with that dreary instrument between us, he had always Radiated such Intense Loathing of me that I could hardly be expected to Burst into Flower at the sound of his name”. After all the pious recollections of Hobsbawm last year, I found this such a nice moment of deflation. As was the scene at Abba Eban’s wedding, when she recalls how she dealt with her own raised eyebrows at being asked by a cousin whether the bridegroom was a virgin. So let me pass on the recommendation. Eileen Alexander, in Love in the Blitz, emerges as an intensely vivid character who gives a remarkable picture of a Jewish life between Cambridge and London in the war years.

Ros Landy No Italian trips are possible during Covid 19 restrictions, but one can watch an Italian film.

Netflix is showing at atmospheric movie, “A Life Ahead”, starring Sophia Loren, as Madame Rosa, an Auschwitz survivor, and Ibrahima Gueye in the part of Momo, a Senegalese street urchin. The Madame Rosa’s household also includes a Romanian boy, abandoned by his mother. The result is a trio of people with deep-seated problems. The film tracks the progress of each character with the passage of time. We hear Italian, the Puglian dialect, Romanian, and a bit of Hebrew all subtitled. The psychology of loss, desertion, and unconditional love is explored until the gentle final scenes. The acting of both Loren and Gueye is superb; the scenery portrayed and the landscapes remembered are beautiful; the music is first rate. This is a film not to be missed.