Mostly perfect

Rating: 10/10 (16 June 2016)

As we get closer to movie #4,000, I find myself trying to see movies that – let's face it – are classics and that I have never gotten around to seeing. Many of these movies are foreign films, but that's a "problem" I can easily get past. (Hello, subtitles!) There's no excuse for not seeing them, not now.
Life Is Beautiful (1997, ****) is one of those films. The movie has Oscar written all over it, and in fact it won three (Best Actor, Best Foreign Film, Best Original Score). It was released nearly 20 years ago, so it's no longer new but not quite old enough (in my mind) to qualify as an old movie.
So now I've finally watched it. What a glorious film! What a flawless film, too, from the acting to the cinematography to the terrific plot – including the subtle shift, about halfway through, from broad comedy to dark comedy with a tinge of sadness. You don't see that sort of mix often with movies that have a Holocaust theme. Oh, did I give something away? No, I did not.
Here's the synopsis. Roberto Benigni plays a Jewish-Italian librarian in 1930s Italy. Guido is a fun-loving cut-up with impeccable comic timing, and it's with his quick wit and that timing that he woos and wins over a noble lass named Dora, played by Benigni's real-life wife, Nicoletta Braschi. That's generally the first half of the movie, with Guido's antics providing some hilarious entertainment. The man rescues his lady with a green horse! But, you see, Guido is Jewish, and did I mention this was 1930s Italy? The Nazis are around, and Guido, Dora, and their young son Joshua are rounded up and taken to a concentration camp. Dora is immediately separated from her son and husband. Guido and Joshua are taken to some stark, ugly barracks. Guido knows perfectly well what's going on, but he desperately wants to prevent Joshua from knowing the awful truth of their predicament. So he tells the boy that everyone – the other prisoners, the guards, his mom – are part of an elaborate game. The winner gets to take home a tank! The rules include not asking for one's mommy, not crying, and not saying you're hungry.
Elaborate isn't the word for it, frankly. The other prisoners play along, too. Guido's love for his son is so powerful that he refuses to let the lad lose hope, even when other children insist that the guards turn people like Joshua into soap and buttons. Guido's indomitable spirit saves Joshua.
Benigni is amazing and justifiably won an Oscar for this movie. Remember him famously walking over seats to get to the stage at the Academy Awards? His outsized personality commands Life Is Beautiful, imploring us to find serenity, compassion, and love in even the most impossible places. Truly a triumphant film.