page_title: Roberto Benigni
section_title: TuttoDante
hierarchical_section_title: Roberto Benigni / Career / TuttoDante
caption_attribution_description: English: Roberto Benigni on the stage of TuttoDante a Padova Italiano: Roberto Benigni sul palco di TuttoDante a Padova, 23 giugno 2008
context_page_description: Roberto Remigio Benigni Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international fame for writing, directing and starring in the film Life Is Beautiful, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 71st Oscars Ceremony.
  Benigni made his acting debut in 1977's Berlinguer, I Love You, which he also wrote, and was directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci. Benigni's directorial debut was the 1983 anthology film Tu mi turbi, which was also the acting debut of his wife, Nicoletta Braschi. In 1986, Benigni made his first English-language film, Down by Law, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, with whom Benigni would make two more films: Night on Earth and Coffee and Cigarettes.
  In 1988, Benigni was acclaimed for the film The Little Devil, which he directed, wrote and starred in. Costarring American actor Walter Matthau and Braschi, the film was shot in alternating takes in both Italian and English.
context_section_description: Benigni is an improvisatory poet (poesia estemporanea is a form of art popularly followed and practiced in Tuscany), appreciated for his explanation and recitations of Dante's Divina Commedia from memory.
  During 2006 and 2007, Benigni had a lot of success touring Italy with his 90-minute "one man show" TuttoDante ("Everything About Dante"). Combining current events and memories of his past narrated with an ironic tone, Benigni then begins a journey of poetry and passion through the world of the Divine Comedy.
  TuttoDante has been performed in numerous Italian piazzas, arenas, and stadiums for a total of 130 shows, with an estimated audience of about one million spectators. Over 10 million more spectators watched the TV show, Il V canto dell’Inferno ("The 5th Song of Hell"), broadcast by Rai Uno on 29 November 2007, with re-runs on Rai International.
  Benigni began North American presentations of TuttoDante with an announcement that he learned English to bring the gift of Dante's work to English speakers. The English performance incorporates dialectic discussion of language and verse and is a celebration of modernity and the concept of human consciousness as created by language.
  Benigni brought "TuttoDante" to the United States, Canada and Argentina in the TuttoDante Tour between 2008-2009 with performances in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. Benigni was feted in San Francisco at a special reception held by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in his honor on May 24, 2009. Following his U.S. premiere Benigni performed his last presentation on 16 June 2009, in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he was awarded Honorary Citizenship of the City of Buenos Aires in a ceremony held at the Legislative Palace in homage to the notable Italian diaspora and culture in Argentina.
caption: Benigni on the stage of TuttoDante in Padua, June 2008.
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