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Life Is Beautiful | Year: 1998 Classification: Foreign Film - Italian Directed: - Roberto Benigni Actors/Actresses: - Roberto Benigni - Nicoletta Braschi Holocaust Revisionism Set in the 1930s and '40s, "Life is Beautiful" opens by claiming that the story it tells is a fable, and fittingly, the first half of this film is light and entertaining. Benigni captures the audience with optimistic humour, and Chaplinesque physical comedy as he tries to romance the woman of he has fallen in love with. As the romance progresses we are introduced to the theme that will dominate the second portion of the film: antisemitism. Benigni's character is Jew, and is sent to a concentration camp; his wife joins him and their son, rather than let the family be separated. The (mis)representation of the concentration camp (everyone's head was shaved; children were sent straight to the gas chamber; no one was able to maintain a positive sense of humour [see Primo Levi's book, "the Drowned and the Saved"]), which is obviously meant to be Auschwitz, amount to a revision of the Holocaust intended to make it a palatable and potentially humorous subject for the audience, but which also effectively denies the horror and pain of that event. This, coupled with the film's opening claim that the story it portrays is "a fable", provide more ammunition for Holocaust deniers. "Life is Beautiful" is essentially the story of a man who overcomes great adversity for the sake of his family -- a moralizing story which is too weak to be told against the background of a fictionalization of the Holocaust. The most wonderful story ever One of the best films ever made is without a doubt Roberto Benigni's "Life is beautiful". This talented director and comic actor, first Oscar winning for best actor non-English speaker thought of a movie about a Jewish man called Guido who overcomes horror and pain thanks to the great and unbreakable love he has for his son. The story takes place in Mussolini's Italy during World War II, in which the German soldiers deported Jewish people of all ages into the concentration camps where they were killed in various horrible ways. The film itself is a combination of comicality, romanticism and a bit of realism, which creates a very profound story that touches the bottom of everyone's hearts. Guido, the optimist humorous man gets to know Dora in funny circumstances and both fall in love, marry and have one son. After that, the story takes a quick turn. Guido and his family were deported by German soldiers. While in the concentration camps, Guido decides to protect his child from the awaiting horrors by hiding his own fear and tiredness and keeping his humor and using his great imagination in order to convince his son that life is great, always trying to keep his son's dreams and desires awake. The idea of protecting a child's innocence is one of the most wonderful and profound ideas in the whole world, and that's what makes this story the most wonderful ever. "I want to make love to all of hollywood" The pride of Italy Roberto Benini in his WWII masterpiece, tastefully combining comedy with drama in an oscar winning foreign film. A must have. Make sure you watch it in Italian with the subtitles. Buy Life Is Beautiful at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Life Is Beautiful Search with the Priority Search Engine on Life Is Beautiful This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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