Life Is Beautiful (1998)

Excelent movie,

After requesting the movie we thought that could take over 10 days, it only took 4 days. The movie is great, we really enjoyed. July 20, 2008

Whimsy in a Technicolor Death Camp

How to show the horrors of the Holocaust? Spielberg created scenes of almost documentary quality on black and white film in Schindler's List because he believed color would make it too terrible to watch. Roberto Benigni chose to make his Holocaust film in gaudy quasi-Technicolor with unnaturally rosy cheeks, bright pink dresses, and bright green horses. Its main character is a live-action cartoon, complete with slapstick humor, running sight gags, and broad yet deep romance. The result? Life Is Beautiful is more than gut-wrenching. The humor doesn't ease the horror of the Holocaust or make a joke out of it. Contrary to what some reviewers here say, the humor makes the reality of the Holocaust all the more grim in contrast.

While Spielberg certainly captured the facts (and one wonders if one way in which Benigni could be faulted is that he has made a Holocaust movie with no violence), Benigni's film has a different kind of very real emotional truth. Life is Beautiful is a must see, recommended for everyone. At the same time I don't think I could ever own it. One to watch every ten years, if that, because it's so hard to watch. Life is Beautiful is a singular movie--horrifying, sickening, but somehow you still remember the jokes after it.

From here on, there will be some spoilers:

It is not the basic plot which makes this movie good, but the way in which the story is told. All of the advertisements and many of the reviews focus on Benigni's character. (He did after all win several Best Actor awards around the world.) During the film he does seem to monopolize the attentions of the audience and the onscreen characters around him. But the mastery is evident in that much of the story Benigni is telling is actually told very subtly. We can see the love Guido has for Joshua through the father's tireless antics despite his complete exhaustion after a day of hard labor. But Dora's love for her husband and son is even greater than theirs for her. She demands that she be put on the train with her family, even though she is not a Jew. And although Guido tries to involve other prisoners in his game with his son, their attempts are half-hearted at best. He certainly hasn't eased their condition. What's more, he knows that he wouldn't be joking if it weren't for his son.

Later, Guido's uncle instinctively helps a female German guard when she trips near him. She is stunned and the audience should be as well. On the opposite end of the spectrum of human kindness, Doctor Lessing seems to promise help for Guido and his family in the camp, only to ask Guido another riddle when they are able to meet in private. It is the smallest actions which move this story forward, and which evidence just how well-told this story is.
July 3, 2008

An amazing foreign film... don't miss it!

When this movie first came out, we went to the theatre to see it during a foreign film exhibition, and now, in an attempt to share it with the family and some friends, we acquired the DVD and saw it again, this time in the privacy of our home environment.

Life is beautiful is about love, romance, comedy, tragedy, horror, and it surfaces the best and worse of human emotions in a way that leaves us with the hope that someday we shall learn to live better lives.

Roberto Benigni starts as Guido, a young man who moves from the country to the city to work as a waiter for his uncle at a restaurant owned by the family. Guido is articulate, fun, possesses a great imagination and upon arrival falls in love with the woman of his dreams, who "falls from the sky into his arms." Dora, played by Benigni's real life wife, actress Nicoletta Braschi, is dating and is soon to be married to a man that Guido runs into and with whom Guido has several controversial episodes which serve to add great adventure and fun to the story.

Thanks to several encounters where Guido and Dora end up in each other's arms, Guido conquers Dora's heart and they marry, forming a beautiful family. We meet their son, played by Giorgio Cantarini... and the child is simply magnificent as the stubborn, intelligent and precocious boy that struggles to live through the Holocaust.

At some point, this ideal family life is shattered by the Nazis who arrest and ship the men off to a concentration camp. Because she is Italian, Dora is not arrested but she goes to the train station and commands the Gestapo in charge to stop the train because there has been a mistake. He reviews the list and tells her that no mistake has been made, she is not Jewish and therefore, has not been selected to go, but she explains that her husband and son are on the train, therefore, she too... must go on their journey. The saga that ensues is simply heart wrenching because Guido attempts to do something that we know is impossible, make believe that the concentration camp experience is part of a game designed to determine a winner of a real tank. He does this to shield the child from the horror of what they have to endure each and every day.

What we enjoy most about owning DVD's is that we get to see the special features and bonus material provided with the films. In this DVD, the extras include interviews with many actors that had the honor of working with Benigni, who comment on his personality and charismatic human power. The interviews answer the question: would a Jew be offended by attempting to bring humor, fun, and hope into circumstances surrounding the Holocaust? They conclude that the film surfaces the horror of it all and yet, provides an endearing vision into the best of humanity; a father that risks it all to make sure his child is not traumatized by the insanity created by the most evil machine ever conceived. Simply... a most see film... just make sure you have tissues close by.

July 1, 2008

The way we should all be

Life is Beautiful is an amazing story of total selfless love. The courage and strength for which the main character strives throughout the film is a message in charity. We should all seek to carry ourselves in such loving virtue. This film is an excellent addition to our family collection and we will cherish it and share it with our children for many years to come! June 26, 2008

A great WW2 movie

i saw this movie i school and i couldnt get enough of it. It really gives true descritpion of the halocaust, while telling it through the point of a father. It really sends chills trough your body when you see the grusom things that the jews had to go through daild in the concentration camps. This movie will give you a better understanding of the halocaust!!

If you are interested in a great WW2 movie, then this is for you!! May 25, 2008

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