The best Italian movie ever made

Rating: 9/10 (9 October 2005)

Okay, perhaps I overdid it in my summary. Better movies have come out of Italy, but still, La Vita è bella deserves to be in a Top 50, if not Top 10. It really does.
With this film, comedian Roberto Benigni had a huge responsibility: to amuse people, without making them forget it's a story about one of the most awful periods in human history.He has succeeded admirably, making a true masterpiece, which also perfectly defines the concept of "dramatic comedy".
The first part, with Jewish waiter Guido Orefice(Benigni) getting in trouble with an arrogant Fascist(or,as he calls him, "lo scemo delle uova", the eggs-idiot)while he courts the latter's fiancée, Dora(Benigni's actual wife Nicoletta Braschi), aka "Principessa", is pure entertainment.The trouble,as well as the really funny bits, starts six years later, as Guido, Dora and their son Giosué(Giorgio Cantarini)are taken to a Nazi camp.To make sure his son doesn't worry, Guido tells him it's a game, and that they have to stay there until they've scored 1000 points.
That's the movie's real strength: it's heartbreaking to watch the conditions in which the prisoners are, but we can't stop laughing when we see the various tricks used by our hero to keep his little boy unaware of what's really going on (the scene where he translates the Nazi orders in Italian is priceless).
Another director would probably have focused more on just the laughs or just the tear-inducing scenes, Benigni, on the other hand, has created a perfect balance between comedy and tragedy, one of the best movies in history, not to mention the best one he's ever made.