A true auteur piece...Of course, that doesn't make it a good film

Rating: Null/10 (30 April 2004)

General views of film expressed herein. No specific plot points are discussed.
I respect that Mr. Benigni got his film made the way that he wanted. A true auteur piece in having secured financing for this film that he wrote, directed and stared in. Of course, that doesn't make it a good film. Frankly, I have little respect for LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL and all the attention that it received. The only entertaining thing to come out of this film for me was Ray Romano (I think) on SNL doing a take off of Roberto Benigni at the Academy Awards. I think that he accurately portrayed him as the annoying starved for attention court jester that he is.
If I were Nicoletta Braschi's Dora in LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL I would have had Roberto Benigni's Guido arrested and a restraining order placed against him early on in the story. His character goes on the top of my list of bothersome people portraying even more irritating characters. It is mind-boggling that American audiences embraced this actor that they had so clearly rejected five years prior in THE SON OF THE PINK PANTHER that featured Benigni as the same yuck-it-up persona (albeit with a French accent).
A great Italian film with a lovable child character (that also plays very well to American audiences) is CINEMA PARADISIO. SCHELIEDLER'S LIST is a "wholly unforgettable" movie about the "triumph of the human spirit in the wake of the Holocaust." A real life story of a war torn family is the incredible and ironic EUROPA, EUROPA (HITLERJUNGE SALOMON). It's the story of a Jewish boy separated from his family and taken in by Germans only to become a Nazi youth. Comedy is clearly an element that CAN be included in stories of human drama; the 1962 Czech film THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET (OBCHOD NA KORZE) is a thoughtful film that succeeds in every way that Benigni's LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL fails. LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL is along the lines of TV's Hogan's Heroes but much less entertaining.

If you ever had any doubts about what went on in Nazi Concentration Camps, the French documentary NIGHT AND FOG (NUIT ET BROUILLARD) will shock you back to reality. The images of dead humans stockpiled and bulldozed into a ditches should give you something to think about after you get past the sight of human skin hides being used for Nazi lampshades. Whoever said reality is much scary than fiction wasn't kidding. This infamous film from 1955 shot on the site of Auschwitz is only 30 minutes long, but it is the LONGEST half hour of film you will ever see. Those who want to rewrite or white wash Holocaust history are clearly deluded in the face of reality.
While the financial success of LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL did NOT spawn a rush a Holocaust inspired comedies, there was at least one film that must have been helped by its success. JAKOB THE LIAR is a Robin Williams vanity piece; an Americanized remake of the Academy Award nominated East German film and well regarded book of the same title. It is a film that ultimately fails in the same way LIFE does with the caveat that Williams' performance is surprisingly restrained.
The success of LIFE did get Benigni the backing he needed to make his next tour de force, a live action version of PINOCCHIO. The film turned out to be Italy's most expensive film ever made but was a major flop in the US. Benigni's popularity has, for the most part, since faded out of the American consciousness.