The Beauty in Tragedy

Rating: 9/10 (15 November 2008)

How can you possibly tell the audience, that your main characters go to concentration camps and still show them, perceiving it as a game? That might only be possible if you go a long way and illustrate what a person is capable of doing such a crazy thing. And this is exactly what Benigni does. Everything Guido does in the seemingly comedic first half of the film, prepares us for how he is going to explain the situation to his son, in the second half. The Schopenhauer-magic trick, the wit to act as somebody, who you aren't under extreme danger, only for the one you love, first his wife, then his son. All this is part of a touching story, which does not need any greasy effects, but tells us about love. In addition to that Guido is so impossibly witty, like when towards the end, he breaks from the camp and tells his friend, Bartholomeu, to meet in Vareggia and open up a steel business. Although the tragedy already being inevitable at this point, I cried tears from laughing. When Roberto Benigni jumps around screaming, full of life, it looks easy, typically Italian. I'm convinced it is not, for it must have been hard work. How hard is it to tell a sad story in a funny way? To find anything funny, regarding the background of the setting, the holocaust. Beningi achieved it and consequently was awarded the Oscar. Never have I agreed more with the academy.