Life is Beautiful

This Italian film won fame by picking up three Academy Awards at the last Oscars. It has to be said that triumph at the Oscars rarely seems to correlate with a good film these days (Titanic springs to mind), but Life is Beautiful is certainly worth a second look. After all, a comedy with one of the greatest genocides of all time as a backdrop is not the stuff of your run-of-the-mill blockbuster.

Life is Beautiful opens in pre-war Italy following the escapades of Guido Orette (Roberto Benigni) as he attempts to win the heart of Dora, a local schoolteacher (Nicoletta Braschi). Guido's charms win over Dora, despite the fact that she is already engaged to another man. From here the film moves on five years to find that the couple now have a son, Giosue. Italy is also in the grasps of the Second World War and, because Guido is Jewish, life is hard for the young family. However, Guido sets out to protect Giosue from the reality of war and anti-Semitism by poking fun at the many awkward situations they find themselves in.

This tact is stretched to the limit when the family is sent to a concentration camp and Guido and Giosue are separated from Dora. Guido continues to hide the horrible reality of the camp from Giosue by assuring him that it is all an elaborate game and that the winner will be rewarded with a tank.

Many critics pointed to the Hollywood style of Life is Beautiful as being the reason behind its wealth of Oscar wins. This is probably true, after all the film is pretty over sentimental and, despite the subject matter, leaves you with that warm feel-good glow. However, there are very few Hollywood directors who would handle such a sensitive subject with the humour that sets this film apart. Robert Beningi definitely received criticism for his approach, many felt that he hadn't treated the memory of the holocaust with due respect and was painting a rosy picture of the concentration camps. Whilst I can see where such criticism is coming from, I would say that Life is Beautiful is essentially a story of the relationship between a father and his son in the face of adversity and this it treats with sensitivity and comedy that will definitely have you giggling.

Review by Sarah Woolner
Taken from EUFS Programme 1999-2000