Capsule Film Review: Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella, 1997)

in #film5 years ago

Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful has the distinction of being the most celebrated and the most criticised of all Holocaust films. The latter is thanks to approaching its dark subject through the genre of comedy, which is something that many found inappropriate and insulting to the victims of that tragic event. However, the idea between Benigni’s approach makes a lot of sense – humour is used as an ingenious way to cope with even the darkest aspects of human condition. Film is made of two parts – first, set during 1939 in Italian city of Arezzo and showing how young Jewish man Guido (played by Beningni) romances Gentile teacher Dora (played by Beningin’s real life wife Nicoletta Braschi), works as conventional romantic comedy; second part, much closer to actual drama, is set five years later, during German occupation, and shows how Guido and his five-year old Giousue end up in concentration camp where his father finds an ingenious way for him to survive; he explains that the camp is actually amusement park and that they are playing a game in which young Giousue would score points if he successfully hides. Benigni, whose clownish screen personality at times can be quite irritating, is here making the perfect balance between pathos and gallows humour. Good cast and script are aided by excellent musical score by Nicola Piovani which manages to turn one of the most horrific chapters of history into background of modern fairy tale.

RATING: 9/10

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