This is possibly the most moving and beautiful film I've ever seen!

Rating: Null/10 (5 January 1999)

I was a little bit hesitant about a movie dubbed a "Holocaust comedy" but "La vita e bella" turned out to be one of the loveliest movies I've ever seen. The light and joy of the first half of the movie just made what came next all the more tragic. I thought the little boy who played Josue was brilliant -- in a a league with the child actors in "Kolya" and "Burnt by the Sun" in terms of being believable and childlike without being cutesy. Benigni has always been a favorite of mine, but I never realized the depth and brilliance of the man until I saw this film. It's truly a beautiful film -- I'm moved to tears of laughter (when I think of the scene where Guido lectures a class of schoolchildren on the alleged superiority of the "Italian race") and to tears of sorrow at the fate of Guido and his family -- and I almost never cry in movies.