Here's an odd combination: A tepid love story is set in 1938 Italy amidst a backdrop of political turmoil. The oddity is the tepidness of the love story -- even Enemy of the Gates, an otherwise weak film, had the good sense to make the romance sizzle in its historical context. Although it plays an admittedly smaller role in the film, the movie's look at the apathetic, disbelieving rich of Italy during the dawn of WWII is a far more compelling tale. Somewhere in the middle lies Finzi-Continis' look at Anti-Semitism in Italy, where the "what happened in Germany could never happen here" mentality reigned. One of Vittorio De Sica's (The Bicycle Thief) final films.

Aka Il Giardino dei Finzi-Continis.