Laugh? I nearly died!

Rating: 7/10 (8 March 1999)

I would normally run a mile in the opposite direction when faced with the prospect of concentration camp drama - but a concentration camp comedy? I'm sure many will take the same line. But opening reviews rank this as a must-see. So. Must see. The first point to note is that it takes the best part of an hour before we realise that Roberto Benigni is playing a Jew, which is a reasonable point and makes for happy viewing. This isn't a north European ghetto. This is a beautiful Tuscan mountainside village and Charlie Chaplin is centre stage. But then the storm troopers arrive. And the chronology is irritatingly wrong. And the camp is surreal, but in an inappropriately comic fashion. I felt for Giorgio Cantarini and thought about the lies my father told.