A Brilliant piece of motion picture art

Rating: 10/10 (13 September 1999)

I see a lot of movies and not many can be described as art. Well, this one definately qualifies. The story of a man's love for his wife and son has so many facets that a 1000 words would not be enough to describe it. I thought the acting of Cantarini was excellent. This young man was casted to a very high standard of performance. I could compare it to Anna Paquinn in The Piano, only better. The story could indeed be compared to Schindler's List in that one gets to see the picture from the victims' side, without the war being the centre of the plot. I felt that the lesson to be learned here was that one can rise above one's life situation and problems. You saw how heavy those steel things were that Guido had to carry and how tired he was. But, for the sake of his child, he stayed positive and focussed on calming the child. Guido gave the ultimate sacrifice of love, namely his life to his family. This scene must be one of the most intence I have ever experienced. One wishes he would come out from behind that wall and laugh in your face and tell you like Jim Carrey would that it is only a joke, but he doesn't. He shows us that life is beautiful indeed, if one strives to make it beautiful and be willing to share that beauty with people around us.
Some artists left us opera's and concerto's, some great paintings, some telephones and aircrafts, and Roberto Begnini left us Life is beautiful. What a gift.