Details
Movie Description
Conjuring keys and hats out of thin air, Guido (Roberto Benigni), a clever Jewish-Italian waiter, successfully courts Dora (Nicoletta Braschi), a beautiful local woman, in Fascist pre-WWII Italy. His life, however, is turned upside down a few years later when he, Dora, and their young son, Giosué (Giorgio Cantarini), are sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Refusing to give up hope, Guido tries to protect his son's innocence by pretending that their imprisonment is just an elaborate game, with the grand prize being a tank.
For years the box-office champ in Italy and the country's most beloved slapstick comic, the Chaplinesque Benigni took a huge risk with LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. Many people worried that the film would be as offensive as plopping a cartoon character in Auschwitz. (A similar work--THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, a Jerry Lewis film about a comedian in a concentration camp--turned out to be a disaster two decades earlier.) Although LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL did provoke some controversy, many people found the film to be a poignant, tragicomic story that profoundly reaffirmed the humanity of concentration camp victims. The film became the highest grossing foreign language film in the U.S. and established Benigni as an international star.
Synopsis
In LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, a endearing Jewish-Italian waiter in pre-WWII Italy courts a lovely local woman. A few years later, when he and his idyllic family are taken to a Nazi concentration camp, he uses his magical gifts of humor and romance to see his wife and son through their uncertain days.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1 Encoding
Keep Case
Making-Of Documentary
Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots
Industry Reviews
"...[A] magnificent film....Real emotional strength..."
Sight and Sound - p.46 - Colin MacCabe (02/01/1999)
"...[Benigni] succeeds, to an extraordinary degree, in reviving the neo-Technicolor lushness and affectionate screwball rhythms of postwar Hollywood....A delicate romance spiked with antifascist farce..."
Entertainment Weekly - p.54 - Owen Gleiberman (11/06/1998)
"...[Benigni] puts a serious spin on his comic genius..."
Premiere - p.29 - Glenn Kenny (10/01/1998)
"...Mr. Benigni effectively creates a situation in which comedy is courage. And he draws from this an unpretentious, enormously likable film that plays with history both seriously and mischievously..."
New York Times - p.E14 - Janet Maslin (10/23/1998)
"...[The film] explores the power of laughter to lift the human spirit even in the face of extreme tragedy..."
Box Office - Lael Loewenstein (07/01/1998)
"...[Benigni is] one of the world's most irresistibly funny people. A mischief-maker percolating with infectious energy and a machine-gun verbal style, he blends an Everyman aura with the ability to infuse his characters with believable innocence..."
Los Angeles Times - Kenneth Turan (10/23/1998)
Quotations
"Buon giorno, principessa!"--Guido (Roberto Benigni) to Dora (Nicoletta Braschi)
"No spiders or Visigoths allowed."--Guido to his son, Giosué (Giorgio Cantarini)
"You can lose all your points for any one of three things. One--if you cry. Two--if you ask to see your mother. Three--if you're hungry and ask for a snack! Forget it!"--Guido to Giosué
"We play the part of the real mean guys who yell."--Guido, supposedly translating a German soldier
"Don't ask for any lollipops. We eat them all."--Guido, still translating a German soldier
"They make buttons and soap out of us."--Giosué to Guido
"Fat, fat, ugly, ugly, all yellow in reality, if you ask me what I am, I answer 'cheep, cheep, cheep.' Walking along I go, 'poo poo.' What am I? Tell me true."--Dr. Lessing (Horst Bucholz) to Guido
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