A heartbreaking comedy, accomplishing an almost impossible task.

Rating: 10/10 (15 August 2001)

Until this movie, it was virtually impossible to imagine a comedy about the concentration camps, or the Jewish experience under Nazism. A group of major comedians has tried(Jerry Lewis, and more recently, Robin Williams), but all come a cropper. Benigni succeeds, in part by focussing the comedy on the heartbreaking task of a father trying to save his son by dissembling about the whole experience. What makes the comedy work is the constantly haunting pain, and what makes the pain more severe is the effort, and success, of the comedy.