User Reviews

Before I watched this film, I was a bit hesitant because the basic premise sounds so ridiculous--a man who uses humor and imagination to shield his son from the horrors of the holocaust while in a concentration camp! I mean, how can this movie be funny? Is this another "Hogan's Heroes" or what, I thought.

Well, first, most of the humor in the film occurs BEFORE the internment. This makes sense and allows the movie to be in good taste. I found myself laughing out loud on many occasions with the silly buffoonery of Benigni as he tries to capture the heart of a woman he keeps "bumping into". These moments also abound with charm and seem rather reminiscent of the work of Chaplin--lots of physical humor and charm.

The second half of the movie does indeed take place in a prison camp. Occasionally, there were some mildly humorous moments but the goal was not a cheap laugh but were desperate attempts to convince the child that he should not give up hope. Despite the ludicrousness of the plot at this point (hiding a little boy in a men's dormitory in a prison camp), the way they explain it works out perfectly and should not offend or diminish from the horrors that were the holocaust.

This film, though VERY cleverly written, was carried by Benigni's marvelous acting. He rightly deserved the Oscar for Best Actor for all his charm, enthusiasm and magnetism.

Mixing humor and the Holocaust isn't anything new: Ernst Lubitsch's 'To Be Or Not To Be' is just one enduring classic; Mel Brooks' 'The Producers' is another; and 'Life Is Beautiful' has the small-town charm and ambiance of 'Amarcord,' and light-straight satire of 'The Great Dictator.'

Set against the stark reality of World War II Europe, Roberto Benigni's sentimental fable is not a film about the Holocaust, it's a film about life and hope merely against the backdrop of the Holocaust... It's not a denial of the Holocaust, it is a manifestation that humor itself can be courage... It's not about betraying the experience of millions of Jews, it is about the great lengths a father will go to protect his family from the horrors of the Nazis... It's a demonstration of the power of cinema, it's art without claim, hope without fear, dreams without limitations... It's a motion picture about love, not a documentary about the Nazis... It delivers a powerful message that despite everything—life is truly beautiful...

The story begins in 1939 Italy, where a simple, free-spirited Italian Jew Guido Orefice (Benigni) and his poet friend Ferrucio (Sergio Bini Bustic) have dreams of owning their own bookstore... For now, however, Guido must be satisfied to wait tables, while Ferrucio is unable to get a job...

Benigni's character is introduced during a long set of fast comedy scenes, particularly when he meets a cute gentile woman, Dora—Nicoletta Braschi, Benigni's real-life wife... When she 'falls out of the sky,' and he quickly nicknames her 'Principessa'... When he rides, in a fascist ball, on a horse painted green... When he turns a gloomy rainy night into a red carpet event... When he is caught by the Nazis as he hurries about securing the safety of his wife and son.. When his car speeds, without brakes, through a village and is mistaken for a king...

Guido falls hard for the radiant schoolteacher, daughter of a wealthy family, and pursues her with all the charm and imagination he can discharge... In one sequence he pretends to be a school inspector and gives an impromptu speech on racial superiority before the assembled students and teachers, ending with a striptease...

That hilarious side of the film takes up the first half... Benigni (who also wrote and directed) borrows a bit of Chaplin's grace and a bit of Groucho Marx charm... All of the action is so neatly contrived that the film essentially ends when it's over, and then begins again with the introduction of Guido and Dora's cute five-year-old son Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini) few years later...

There, in 1945, we catch a glimpse of their enchanting household, but things are soon shattered, and the Nazis take Guido, with his tolerant uncle (Giustino Durano) and little Giosue off to an unidentified concentration camp... Dora races to the train station and demands to be put also on the train...

At the death camp, and in order to protect his son from the nightmare of the place, Guido uses his imagination by creating the illusion that everything that's happening is just a game, an epic game that will be exciting and fun...

He convinces Giosue that by hiding from the Gestapo soldiers (whom he refers to simply as the "men who yell a lot") and maintaining silence, he can gain the necessary points to win a tank... Not a toy tank, but a full-size tank, which they'll be free to take home...

As co-writer, Benigni (with Vincenzo Cerami), doesn't just mix drama and comedy, he often hides drama in the comedy... The film does not dwell on the horrors of the camp, nor does it ignore them...

With a memorable score by Nicola Piovani, "Life Is Beautiful" is an important film, triumphant, timeless, and sublime... It manages to entertain, educate, and move with its potent combination of humor, poignancy, and dignity... Roberto Benigni has taken pure horror and turned it into a love story between a man and a woman, between a father and his son... As an actor, Benigni manages with his wise and simple performance to make us laugh in tragic situations... He was very realistic, natural, distant from great special effects, far from Hollywood style, only nice and beautiful cinema...

The film won Academy Awards for Best Actor, Best Foreign Film and Best Dramatic Score...

Contains Spoiler Every once in a while a movie comes along which makes you question the kind of man you are. How do you handle situations? If you were put in the same situation, Would you come out of it smiling? Do you have the courage? Guido (Benigni) did. Life is beautiful charms you right from the opening shot of the beautiful Italian countryside. It takes you into the life of Guido, a young Italian Jewish Waiter who has a beautiful way of looking at things. he never seems to look at anmything negatively, in fact, his frivolous view to life is what makes you sit riveted throughout. I don't think he's delusional, he is a very serious man, and he sees the gravity of situations in his life, but he doesn't want the people around him to feel it, hence his ever-smiling, effervescent demeanour. It all seems like a fairy tale. His landing into the school as the impostor school inspector and lecture on the virtues of the navel... His galloping down into the ballroom on the horse and whisking his bride away towards a happy life... His superspeed bike ride down the town square... things that we all dream of. An untouched innocence. The movie takes a dramatic turn when he finds himself in a concentration camp with his son... His made up story of how the camp is a game and the father-son team are the leading competitors... An unmatched courage. Not one to cry in movies as a rule, I found myself alone at home one day, and when the boy is hidden in the little box, looking at his father being led away at gun point, getting scared... and then, the father doing what he usually does to reassure the boy that the situation is not as serious as it looks... the clown march... I felt tears roll down my cheeks. And then, i started sniffing... after a while, the sniffs turn into sobs, and ultimately, when his father is dead, and the boy sees the American tank coming towards him, the elation in his eyes, the jubilation at winning first prize... it turned the sobs into a full fledged howl. Thats when i got the message... That's when the maginitude of the sacrifice made by the father in an effort to protect his son hit me like a thunderbolt and hasn't left me since. Thats when you realize that life is all about loving, and protecting and cherishiong your loved ones. and despite all the troubles, the despair and the danger that one may face, Life is... Beautiful.

A film of 2 halves. The first is a joyous lighthearted comedy with Benigni trying everything to woo Braschi. The second half takes a far more serious turn with a Benigni and Braschi (now married) and their young son (Cantarini) send to a concentration camp. Here he tries to protect his son from the horrors by pretending it's all a game, with a real tank going to the winner.

A difficult film to define. The first half is a complete joy, with lots of laughs - Benigni's scenes romancing Braschi are wonderful with various plot devices used to great effect including a scene when he tells her he needs a dry hat - hilarious. The second half though is tricky. Benigni manages to maintain a convincing balance between horror and humour, but there's no avoiding, in a world where Schindler's List and The Pianist exist, that the horror is largely played down.

It is though a film that leaves you smiling - just - and which reflects perfectly the message in the title of the film. The performances are outstanding with Benigni giving a standout comic turn - like Chaplain, only funnier, with impressive support from Braschi and Cantarini. Not altogether sure Benigni deserved the Oscar though against Hanks in Saving Private Ryan, as glorious though his performance is, you get the impression that this is what he's like in real life. Not to be missed though.

"Life is Beautiful" is more than a masterpiece. It is possibly THE most incredibly wonderful movie that exists. Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni) is a Jewish waiter in 1930s Italy. He has managed to hide his ethnic background, although he is fully aware of the anti-Semitism around him (one man has sons named Adolf and Benito). To counter Mussolini's nationalism, he goes to a school to "prove" that the Italians are a superior race: he shows off his bellybutton. After some flings with "principesa" Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), the two of them get married and have a son named Giosue (called Joshua in the subtitles).

A few years later, the Nazis are rounding up all the Jews in town, including Guido and Giosue (Dora demands to be taken also). But Guido has the most imaginative plan: he tells Giosue that they are playing a game. In what may be the movie's most surprising scene, they enter a barracks where everyone is wearing those suits that we've seen in footage of concentration camps, and Guido "translates" for the Nazi guard: he announces how they are participating in this game to see who can get the most points, and you lose points for being a crybaby, asking to see your mommy, or asking for food. You are quite literally assuming that he can't pull it off, but he does masterfully.

Throughout the whole movie, you keep expecting that he's eventually going to go over the edge, but he never does. "Life is Beautiful" is more than beautiful. Benigni's Oscars for Best Actor and Best Foreign Language Film were probably the most well-deserved Oscars in recent years. If you ask me, the movie should have won Best Picture, and every other possible Oscar. It is a work of pure genius.

You betcha. But it's not as offensive as you think. In fact, it's not offensive at all. It's a powerful and moving film about the power of family and what one man will do when that family is threatened. The plot is as follows: after Germans attack Italy, Guido and his family are forced into a concentration camp. Guido spends most of the rest of the film desperately trying to convince his young son that the holocaust is nothing but a game- and that the child has to keep out of sight in order to win. He promises him that the winner will earn a full size tank- and the boy does get a tank at the end of the film, just not in the way he thinks he will. The first hour or so is pure slapstick/romantic comedy, and the second hour or so is moving and heartbreaking- with touches of humor to(I assume) keep the audience from becoming too depressed or disturbed. I was amazed at how it could dramatically shift from comedy to drama so quickly.

Try to watch this film without crying. If you don't, even just a bit, there's something seriously wrong with you.

I love the movie. I'm not a big movie smart person but omg this movie. I love how in the beginning it kinda looks like a comedy and you start slowly seeing signs of the nazis invasions. When they go to the concentration camp the movie totally changes, it starts looking like a more dramatic scenery and the colours of the movie are colder.

Having heard nothing but positive about this movie, I must admit that I was slightly disappointed by the movie. The movie is not the effective and emotional involving concentration camp movie it promised to be, which is due to some poor choices of storytelling and its approach. But of course nevertheless this movie is way better than the just average movie regarding the subject and the movie still manages to be effective on most of its fronts, just not on the most important ones.

The main problem with the movie is that it can be divided into two separate parts. In the first part of the movie 'life is wonderful' and everything is perfect and the story is told almost fairytale like, with a dreamy like love-story and lots of slapstick-comedy in it. It's just too perfect and happy all, which really doesn't make the movie believable. Yes, I of course realize that this was done on purpose to make the contrast of the second halve of the movie that is set in a concentration camp all the more bigger. It's almost like; no matter what we are going to show in the second halve, it's always going to look worse and more horrible compared to the 'happy' perfect-life first part of the movie. It felt like a really cheap way to steer the viewer's emotions. And let's face it, nothing really bad actually ever happens in the second halve For example; correct me if I'm wrong but we never get to see anyone get killed on screen. And all of the prisoners could walk around freely it seemed and the way the story was told made it seems as if they were in the camp for only two days or so. We never get to see any of the WW II cruelty which occurred in these sort of concentrations camp at the time of the war, with the exception of two or three sequences, which just isn't quite good and effective enough for such a sort of movie that tries to get the viewers emotional involved with the characters and events that occur in this movie. Also the fact that the mother was on the other side of the concentration camp gets highly underused and underdeveloped. They could had really made the movie more effective and emotional with this plot element.

Also the comedy of the movie was far too slapstick like for a movie with such an heavy subject. It for me was the reason why I enjoyed watching the movie but yet just never got emotionally involved with it. Roberto Benigni is a clown, not an actor! But yet he won an Oscar for his role in this movie. Sorry, can't say I'm really a fan of him. Too much jumping around and shouting and not enough structured acted out humor, though he shows he's a competent director with this movie. Despite taking some not so effective approaches, the movie is still well structured and directed.

It's rather cute that Bengini and his wife Nicoletta Braschi always appear together in movies but I'm sorry to say that Nicoletta Braschi just isn't the greatest actress around,, to put it mildly. It's also always dangerous to have a young kid play one of the other main characters of the movie. Giorgio Cantarini does an effective job with looking cute and Innocent at all but he also looked a bit too much to the things going on behind the camera's during sequences, as if he wasn't focused enough on the actual filming process. This was getting a bit disturbing after a while, especially in some of the sequences toward the end of the movie, which are the most heavy moments of the movie.

I admire the approach the story picks when the movie gets set in a concentration camp, when the father is coming up with all kinds of things to make his young son believe they are in some sort of holiday camp, instead of a concentration camp. Truth gets mixed up with fiction in the movie, which provides the movie with some good moments. It's perhaps the best and most interesting idea of the movie, which certainly helps to make this movie an unique one.

The movie is really good looking, which is of course mostly due to the Italian settings of the movie but the movie also does a good job at re-capturing the '40's period, in terms of costumes, sets and props. The movie is most definitely not a cheap-looking one, which perhaps is the case with most other European productions, especially the ones regarding the same subject and time period.

The movie was one of the big surprises of 1997 and was also nominated for 7 Oscar's, also including the ones for best movie, best directing and best screenplay. The movie eventually took home 3 statues for actor in a leading role, best foreign language movie and best music.

I was overall slightly disappointed by the movie but my expectations for it were perhaps a bit too high.

7/10

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