"Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault." (Oscar Wilde, preface to "The Picture of Dorian Gray")

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2001)

This film is a beautiful thing.
Okay, perhaps that's cheating. I don't really like responding to people who carp at "Life is Beautiful", mainly because I don't see how they could fail to have the required reactions. How could anyone not find Guido charming? Yes, he's a pathological confabulator, but that's the point. This is the story of someone whose way of life consists of enchanting the world around him with white lies (most of them are white) and manipulative genius. He tries to continue living in the same way as the civilised world around him collapses; arguably, he succeeds, but he ends up paying a heavy price. How could anyone not like this fable?
And how could anyone not find both halves of the film - particularly the first, of course - funny? It's the kind of humour where it doesn't matter if you laugh or not; either way, you can still enjoy the wit, and marvel at Guido's folkloric cleverness. And on subsequent viewings it becomes more and more clear how the two halves set each other off perfectly. Toccata and fugue. ...I understand the viewpoint of those who think that Benigni shouldn't have made a comedy about the Holocaust. I can see how Holocaust survivors (and perhaps those close to them) might be genuinely offended. But this doesn't make "Life is Beautiful" a bad film; it simply means, at most, that making it was an impolitic act. I've heard interviews with Holocaust survivors who thought "Schindler's List" was a similarly impolitic act. (And note that "Schindler's List", however good it may be, is clearly inferior as a work of art.) If anything is wrong, it's the act of using the Holocaust as part of the subject matter of ANY work of art. Benigni's particular way of handling the subject is as good as any other, provided he succeeds, which he does.