The director handles the gloomy second half with an uncanny sense of balance. For instance, as Guido s artifice is tested, his jokes and games mirror the jolly inventions of the movie s romantic first half. In his constant battle to hold his son s imagination, Guido seems like a knight defending a castle. As director, Mr. Benigni downplays the harsh reality of the camps an entirely appropriate choice in a story that is filtered through the memory of a child. Even when Guido stumbles on a mountain of corpses, he sees it in ghostly shadows, almost an abstract vision.
Life Is Beautiful already has scooped up prizes at film festivals from Cannes to Vancouver.
It seems Mr. Benigni, long an adored figure in his native Italy, has at long last found the story to win the hearts of the whole wide world. The Cincinnati Enquirer , a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper.