"Life is Beautiful" is the second time I’ve seen Roberto Benigni in a film. The first was the abysmal "Son of Pink Panther," a 1993 release that tried to pay homage to the late great Peter Sellers, but was a completely unfunny mess. Sure, Benigni had oodles of energy as he bounced around the screen playing Inspector Clouseau's illegitimate son. But I came away less amused and more annoyed by his clownish antics and the fact that he would try to rob Peter Sellers’ grave.
So when I heard that Benigni had made a comedy about life in a German concentration camp, I was braced for the worst.
Boy, was I wrong! "Life is Beautiful" deserves all the lavish praise heaped on it by critics and audiences. This is a profound, moving and—yes—very funny motion picture…and it all hinges on the impeccable performance by Benigni and a script which fits together pieces of what at first appears to be a patchwork plot. However, nothing is wasted in this self-proclaimed fable; eventually, even the smallest gag of Benigni’s comes to have greater meaning later in the story.
As the simple-hearted waiter Guido, Benigni is charming, silly and humane. Nothing can stand in his way of finding joy in every moment of life. His true love is about to get married to the town’s boor? No problem, Guido bursts into the engagement banquet astride a green horse and sweeps her away, leaving the guests flabbergasted…and the viewer laughing with delight.
Guido has a sharp mind which continually comes up with a magical explanation for even the worst events, including the Holocaust which, he tells his son when they’re rounded up along with other Italian Jews, is a game he’s giving to him for his birthday. If he’s able to hide from the German guards and not complain too much about being hungry, he’ll earn points every day. The prize? A real tank. The boy’s eyes go wide with delight—not only because of the anticipated prize, but also the zest his father brings to their drab life in the concentration camp.
Perhaps the funniest scene in "Life is Beautiful" comes when Guido volunteers to translate the guard’s rules from German to Italian for the rest of the bunkhouse inmates, including his son. Guido doesn’t know a word of German, but he seizes the opportunity as a chance to explain the "rules" all right—the rules of his invented game, that is. We never know what the snarling German guard is saying, but that doesn’t matter. What we get from Benigni is a hysterical, quick-thinking improvisation that works on many different levels.
"Life is Beautiful" has been criticized for attempting to put a happy face on the horrors of the concentration camp experience. Benigni, critics say, is exchanging grim reality for light fantasy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There are plenty of shocking moments—for instance, the time he and his son are out walking in the fog at night and they stumble upon the huge pile of smoldering bones. By showing us that the only way to escape the atrocities was through fantasy, Benigni makes his point all that much clearer. It’s as hard-hitting as "Schindler’s List."
With this movie, Benigni earned my respect and admiration. With a few more films like this one, I’d be willing to place him right up there with the likes of Charlie Chaplin. Indeed, "Life is Beautiful" is on par with Chaplin’s greatest works, "City Lights," "Modern Times" and "The Great Dictator." Each of those films contained the Little Tramp’s best comic bits wrapped in a cloak of satire—industry ("Modern Times"), social prejudice ("City Lights") and tyranny ("The Great Dictator"). In his performance as Guido, Benigni has all the sweetness and sorrow of Chaplin. Let’s hope that life continues to be beautiful for this Italian comedian.
Conjuring keys and hats out of thin air Guido Roberto Benigni a clever Jewish-Italian waiter successfully courts Dora Nicoletta Braschi a beautiful lo...More at Family Video
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