- Lady Hester Random
Lady Hester Random (played by
Maggie Smith ) is a fictional character inFranco Zeffirelli 's autobiographical film "Tea with Mussolini ".She is the snobbish, autocratic, small-minded widow of the British
Ambassador toItaly , a genuine member of "the Old Money" and dowager leader of the British colony inFlorence called "The Scorpioni " or "Il Scorpioni", which consisted of old English widows andspinster s. Privileged Lady Hester leads the activities of the colony, which include drinking tea at "Gran Caffé Doney " andUffizi Gallery , arranging picnics to the "créme de la créme" of British residents in Florence and collecting art. Lady Hester also hates Americans. She dwells in the largevilla outside the city with her grandson and some friends of hers.Like many other aristocrats in 1930s, Lady Hester admires
fascism . Moreover after she has tea withBenito Mussolini himself, she's assured about the superiority of fascism. She does not want to leave Florence whenWorld War II is declared and still refuses even when Italy enters into war againstEngland . Italian forces arrest them and throw them into the filthy barracks inSan Gimignano , and they spend the rest of the war there. Eventually, they are rescued by British corpsmen in San Gimignano.After the war, Lady Hester returns to Florence and keeps going the daily afternoon tea at Doney's helped by the rest of "the Scorpioni".
Real Lady Hester
Lady Hester is based upon a real resident of Florence whom Zeffirelli knew in childhood. Zeffirelli mentions her and a couple of other ladies of "the Scorpioni" in his autobiography. He said: "I don't remember if she was called Hester, but I remember this terrible, fantastic woman. She was the dowager of the community. I remember the many outrageous things she did because she could afford to be arrogant and bossy."
See also
* "
Tea with Mussolini "
*The Scorpioni External links
*
* [http://www.tipjar.com/dan/zeffirelli.htm Zeffirelli tells about "The Scorpioni"]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.