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Benigni buoyed by brilliant cast, but still annoying., Mai 5 2003
La Vita e Bella (Roberto Benigni, 1997)Roberto Benigni finally gets out from under the blanket that is Jim Jarmusch (Benigni and Jarmusch teamed for such cult classics as Down by Law and Night on Earth) in America. It should have been obvious for anyone who followed both men that Jarmusch's humor is of a decidedly different sweep than is Benigni's. After all, Benigni released the silly, rather stupid Johnny Stecchino the same year Jarmusch released Night on Earth, with Benigni as one of the cab drivers. Where Jarmusch is intellectual, Benigni is slapstick, often painfully so. To Benigni's credit, La Vita e Bella is his best film. (By far.) He tones down the slapstick quite a bit, though he's as manic as ever. Here, he plays the kind of guy everyone knows, the inveterate liar who uses his talents for storytelling to try and make life better for everyone around him. He gets his big test during World War II; as he is Jewish, both he and his son are taken to a concentration camp, where he spends his time trying to convince his son that they're playing a game rather than trying to keep themselves alive in the face of Nazi oppression. It's impossible not to like the film, really. But I think much of the credit should go to the supporting cast rather than Benigni, who's as annoying as ever. (At least he's not playing with bananas this time a la Johnny Stecchino.) Everyone around him, rather than seeming grateful for his actions, seems to take them with an almost resigned amusement; in other words, every other actor in the movie is set up as a straight man for Benigni and his wild flights of fantasy. The effect is wonderful. There is much to be made of the light tone taken with the Holocaust, and the hundreds of coincidences throughout the latter half of the movie that would have made it impossible, but we must remember: this is Benigni. His character's wild flights of fantasy are nothing more than a mirror of Benigni's own wild flight of fantasy in the structure and content of the film itself. Still, the juxtaposition of manic comedy with the horrors of war (most starkly shown when Benigni gets lost in the fog after the dinner) does leave something of a bad aftertaste in the mouth. Overall, though, a good film. Worthy of the Oscar nominations? Maybe. Benigni winning Best Actor over Edward Norton in American History X? Not even close. ***
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Two topics difficult to mix in a movie, Oct. 1 2001
Grief and happiness, pain and joy, laughing and crying... choose the words. Two such contrastable feelings being mixed in one single movie. The intent is good, but the result was not that good for me: You are just enjoying the last joke you heard in the movie when you have to watch a scene of sorrow, and vice versa.Try eating hot Mexican or Indian food and your favorite sweet cake, at the same time, not one after finishing another. You'll understand what I mean. The movie becomes superficial: you can't enjoy the jokes at their best because you are expecting some sad parts to come and, again, vice versa.
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Life and Humor on the Brink of Holocaust, Aoû 19 2001
This is the only Roberto Benigni picture I did not enjoy. Some subjects are just not funny. To me, Holocaust is one of these subjects. Slapstick and clowning around do not belong here. I am sorry to be so categorical, because I like Benigni's work very much, and generally, his movies are both art and entertainment of the highest class. I think I know what he was trying to do here, and he achieved it. But emotionally I cannot accept this product. This movie has a very different feel than the much lighter "Johnny Stecchino" and "The Monster" (two of his other big hits in America). That is to say, the movie does not leave you feeling that you have just seen a wild, light comedy, but instead, leaves you feeling that you have had a trying experience and know what it's like to confront real evil. This was almost certainly intentional and the only appropriate way to go, but then we are back to the argument that the comedic elements just do not "belong." .... But here you have a death camp and genocidal Germans--a "truly different race" as one character calls them in admiration. By the way, it is typical of Benigni's approach to drop this kind of "hints" to make his statements--he almost never generalizes in a direct fashion. The mere presence of his puzzle-obssessed German doctor, who is entirely incapable of empathy, says more about the single-minded, cold-blooded determination of the Nazis than entire volumes of verbal propaganda ever could.The acting in "Life is Beautiful" is of the highest quality. Benigni again engages his real-life wife Nicoletta Braschi as his co-star and on screen love interest who eventually marries him. Braschi's character, Dora, who is not Jewish, nevertheless follows her husband and son to the camp, when the invading Germans spread their genocidal policy to Italy. This is where the second part of the movie takes place. If you know a lot about WW II and the Holocaust, then the movie is hard to watch and it's hard to accept that its humor fits. But if you are new to the subject or feel rather emotionally distant from it, perhaps you can enjoy the movie as a moving inspirational story. Perhaps.
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The Holocaust as a Coming of Age Adventure, Jui 30 2001
"Life is Beautiful" is one of the strangest movies ever made. The first half of the film introduces us to Roberto Benigni's character, the Jewish Italian Guido. Benigni's performance is immediately captivating and the story of his life in fascist Itlay before the war is lighthearted and quite enjoyable. Then the Nazis take over his portion of Italy and Guido and his son end up in a concentration camp. Despite this development, however, the movie's lighthearted tone doesn't change. In fact, Guido shelters his son from the cold reality of what is going on around them. This, of course, is utterly implausible and is the biggest flaw in the film. Though the horrors of the Holocaust are by no means ignored, the unreality of the camp scenes make it difficult to figure out how one is supposed to react to the film. Ultimately, the film is worthwhile to see Benigni's almost magical performance. But in no way should the film be mentioned in the same sentence with "Schindler's List" or be at all taken seriously.
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difficult to review, Mars 13 2001
I must admit to being excited when the package containing this movie arrived. I did not enjoy this movie as much as I was expecting.It may have been due to mismatched expectations, and this may be the cause. One reviewer pointed out that this movie is meant for Italians, and that is why some people are unable to understand the cultural nuances of the on screen romance. Perhaps this is so, or perhaps I am just getting too old. Where I do think the movie has some merit was the handling of the second half and the concentration camp scenes. The Holocaust is a difficult subject to make any sort of a comedy about, however the point that "life is beautiful" or at least "can be beautiful if you choose" was made effectively.
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Hilarious, poignant, but an historical travesty, Juil 24 2000
Hundreds of reviews? What's all the fuss about? This is very much a film of two halves. The first half is a classic slapstick romance, the second half, a black comedy. These two link together, but the change of pace is jarring and is signalled by the arrival of the main characters at a concentration camp. I wondered how it could be possible to make a comedy of the holocaust, and now I know - depict a fantasy rather than reality. The film is 'unrealistic' in the extreme, but this only partly detracts from the main message, that life and love are stronger than fear and death. I'm not a person who laughs out loud at slapstick - and here yet another egg in the hat routine bores me. But despite the sometimes formulaic pratfalls this film has some comedic moments that are truly inspired. Benigni's arrival at the town school to explain and inadvertantly debunk racial superiority, for instance, or his impromptu 'translation' of the rules of the concentration camp, are simultaneously hilarious and poignant. If you're looking for a film about the holocaust, this isn't it. But if you're looking for a great sentimental comedy with some fine moments, this is one for you. If you've already seen it and loved it, try 'Il Postino' (The Postman). Its better.
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Holocaust Lite, Juil 13 2000
"Life is Beautiful" is a superb film in many ways. Roberto Benigni is a brilliant comic actor and is certainly at the top of his game in this movie. Some scenes such as his impersonation of the fascist lecturer in the Italian primary school are outstanding. In this scene, Benigni has posed as the lecturer in order to get close to the teacher he is in love with. Unfortunately before Benigni can approach her, he is asked to give the students a lecture on Aryan racial superiority. So in a moment of genius the swarthy, dark-haired Benigni strips down to his boxer shorts and demonstrates his "perfect Aryan features".While I enjoyed the comic genius of the film, I was deeply disturbed by its fictitious, understated portrayal of the Nazi death camp. Anyone who has encountered documentary footage and source material from the holocaust can see staggering contrasts between the fictional death camp in "Life is Beautiful" and the real thing. For example, real death camp prisoners would never have been as healthy looking and well fed when disembarking from the cattle cars as the ones in "Life is Beautiful". They would have been greeted with beatings, killings and an instant sense of what the place was all about. If the child, Joshua had survived for more than a few hours (which was almost impossible) he would have been under no illusion about what kind of place he was in. If you don't believe me then read the accounts of Elie Weisel and other youthful survivors of the death camp. What life people clung to in such places was brutal. The horror was so total and so pervasive that even a genius like Roberto Benigni would never have successfully convinced his son that the whole thing was a game. Does this make "Life is Beautiful" a bad movie? Well, it does and it doesn't. The dramatic quality of the film is superb. Unfortunately, the only way the film was able to float its main premise-that a loving father could fool his son into thinking that a deadly situation was just a game-was to tone down the holocaust. This is a terribly irresponsible thing to do for the sake of dramatic quality. There are only a few things in life are too staggering and too important to be molded into comic material, but genocide is certainly one of them.
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no surprises, Mai 7 2000
I have seen both the Italian version & the English version & in my view, it's wise to go for the original version. Even though nothing is lost in understanding the content of the movie via English, & that the English is spoken in Italian fashion, nothing beat the original. The movie holds no surprises. Simply seat back & "enjoy" the movie. I reckon "enjoy" is not a wise word to use considering that we are watching a movie about life in the concentration camp. Benigni is pure magic & I don't think anyone would have the weight as he is to carry the movie. The message of the movie is simple, the love of family surpasses everything in this world. I still think that "Life is Beautiful" is a one man show whereas "Cinema Paradiso" to date still remains one of my favourite Italian movie. Having said that, this is still a movie worth your while to watch.
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., Mai 6 2000
Par Un client
Ok: if your heart is easily warmed, and you like really wacky, light-hearted, whimsical humor which "celebrates the human spirit" and such, this ought to go over well with you. For me it was kind of a mixed bag. A great deal of the humor struck me as incredibly dorky, requiring giant leaps in suspension of disbelief that I simply wasn't quite ready to take. I guess I felt like a lot of it -- first half in particular -- was trying much too hard to be carefree and magical. The only thing that kept me involved is the simple fact that I just kind of like Benigni himself, even though much of his humor fell flat on me. The sort of guy that tries *so* hard, you can't help but admire him a little for the sheer vivacity of his effort, even when the efforts themselves don't pay off. The second half, once the thematic ice gets thinner, helped save it for me. Some people felt that the movie was dealing with a sensitive topic a bit poorly at this point -- I'm not certain about that one way or another -- but if so, that's precisely what made it interesting to me. The humor is just as wacky but suddenly terse in relation to the tragic surroundings and the sensitive theme, and the effect is a bit uncanny. The whimsical feats of Benigni become more far-fetched than ever, but a few of them really do strike a powerful emotional chord. And the dark twist near the end left me reeling; somehow I didn't quite expect it, even though it was inevitable. The very end, with the good old USA busting onto the scene to save the day -- personifed by a handsome, ivory-smiled young soldier, no less -- would've left me a bit queasy under normal circumstances, but I was too busy still dealing with some of the rather unusual aesthetic and emotional responses the movie had triggered in me to bother about it much. I'm not sure whether to recommend it or not, when all is said and done, but it's certainly an interesting creation, and it certainly has its moments.
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It started so well..., Mai 3 2000
The first half of the movie is delightful. Very well acted, with great dialogue and splendid cinematography. Heart warming without being over-sentimental. In a word, well, beautiful.Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is filled with inconsistencies in plot, historical inaccuracies, and, sometimes poor judgment. Really too bad, it started so well...
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