what a great film .
what a stunning , touching , heart - wrenching , heart - warming , life - affirming , miraculous film .
> from its opening moments
, _ life is beautiful _ walks that fine line between serious tragedy and uplifting comedy .
a car with no brakes speeds through the town , and guido ( roberto benigni ) motions people to move out of the way .
they mistake him to be the fascist president , traveling to their town that day .
heil !
heil !
huh ?
shortly thereafter , the president drives through , and people stare , with blank faces .
this is standard , but somehow fresh and postmodern stuff : the clown who is also a jew , triumphs over the anti - semitic society in which he = lives .
granted , _ the great dictator _ comes to mind --
charlie chaplin+s almost masterpiece .
i think lib ( which benigni wrote and directed ) trumps gd in one essential point : chaplin+s jewish barber gives a great speech at the climax , but to do so , he had to break completely from character .
benigni is given a similar situation : he is mistaken as a fascist dignitary , and must explain to a classroom filled with schoolchildren = on how scientists have concluded that aryans are the superior race .
benigni+s guido stays in character , and delivers the speech , keeping = the subject matter intact while showing the absurdity of its concept .
it = is one of the great satirical scenes in modern cinema .
there are many other scenes , especially in the first half , which are bright and loopy and funny and silly
. slapstick reigns , and although the film is subtitled , there was no doubt that a universal language was being conveyed .
and although it+s focus is on the courtship of guido = to dora ( played by nicoletta braschi , benigni+s real life wife ) , a silent undercurrent creeps in .
this is clearly a racist society , evidenced by the aforementioned scene and others , and it will soon affect him and = his family .
the second half of the film takes place five years later , in an unnamed concentration camp , where guido , dora ( by her insistence ) , and their five - year old son , giosu = e9 ( giorgio cantarini ) , are deported .
guido , seeing the horrors , is desperate to protect his wife and child .
for = his wife , who is separated from him , he must find ways to communicate to = her that he is all right .
for his son , ( and this is the most controversial part of the film )
he convinces the youngster that this is all one big elaborate game : it+s rules include hiding , being very quiet , and learning to not ask for seconds . which raises the big questions : how do we deal with pain ? with persecution ?
with injustice on the worst level ?
it+s said that tragedies bring out the best in people , finding strengths they did not realize they had .
other times they deteriorate , become overwhelmed = with little strength or incentive to swim .
sometimes even , people giggle in these moments , as if there were a vacant emotion behind them , yearning for some brightness to soothe their wounds .
benigni+s guido realizes this .
he is the clown , but he is not a fool .
he sees the slurs and the vandalism , and while feeling the weight of = the verbal attacks , he still has the audacity to see if everyone around = him , perhaps even the antagonists , laugh .
his liberty is stripped , but not his dignity , and certainly not the dignities of those around him .
it+s obvious from the onset that here is someone who is very much against fascism and the preposterousness of an aryan nation , but does so with a grinning , joyful demeanor .
perhaps that is a form of denial .
perhaps his alternate reality is all that he could muster ( not unlike the very different _ brazil _ ) .
or . . . perhaps this is an example of great fortitude , with no weapons
but = wit .
whatever his purposes is subject to debate , but also a sure sign that this is one of the great three - dimensional characters , stranded amidst = a terrifyingly risky concept .
surprisingly , it works .
it is an important footnote that this film was not intended to be an accurate reflection of the holocaust .
it+s not that the atrocities are trivialized , far from it .
they don+t have to be broadcast and explicitly shown to muster the same horror -- less is more .
i believe = that benigni was cautious to preserve the tone , and i like the theory that = it is guido+s alternate reality that we+re seeing .
however , any criticism that this is rewriting history , that the holocaust wasn+t as bad as it seems , is simply off - target .
benigni+s film has won audience awards at cannes , at toronto , and is a definite shoo - in for best foreign language film
( hopefully for best picture as well ) .
he has been made an honorary jew by a jerusalem film society .
it swept the italian academy awards .
controversy notwithstanding
, it is one of the great films this year , and as of this writing , the one to beat for best film . masterful . miraculous . a must - see .
it swept the italian academy awards the one to beat for best film has won audience awards at cannes , at toronto , and is a definite shoo - in for best foreign language film a universal language was being conveyed it works one of the great satirical scenes in modern cinema bright and loopy and funny and silly masterful what a great film . what a stunning , touching , heart - wrenching , heart - warming , life - affirming , miraculous film miraculous a must - see one of the great films this year