A sorrowful tale of a man's willingness to endure with a smile

Rating: Null/10 (8 March 2018)

Guido, a young and more than a bit whimsical man (Roberto Benigni), arrives at city, being promised a place of work in a hotel operated by his uncle. Quick-witted and always with a laughter on his lips, he swiftly becomes a much beloved fixture as a waiter. In the city he also meets a young school teacher, to whom he makes sure to run every now and then, as if by happenstance. And slowly his cleverness and pleasant attitude start to win over this sweet lady.
Unfortunately it's the end of the 30s and they happen to be a Jewish family.
This film is a comedy. But whereas the first half of the film was a fertile ground for laughter and merriment, it becomes a bit harder to laugh when the comedy comes from a frightened father trying to convince to his son that the horrors of a concentration camp are merely make belief. And that, right there, is exactly why this film is so beautiful. Because he still tries, for his son. He tries, swallowing back tears, not even knowing if his wife, his son's mother, is still alive. But he tries. And it's funny. You absolutely belief why the small child would buy all this nonsense. Yet it's also horrendous. You want to laugh, but there's the shadow of the horror that was the holocaust. And you feel bad for wanting to laugh, while also admiring the fact that the father can elicit this reaction from you.
In Guido crystallize some of the best qualities of a humankind. What a hero, what a father, what a human being.
Some have argued that comedy should have no place in a holocaust movie. That to have jokes in such a film is to make mockery of the suffering of millions. Quite frankly I'm not sure those arguers have seen the film, because to have these jokes in this kind of a film is to make the horror even more horrible.