Life Is Beautiful

This article is about the 1997 Italian film. For other uses, see Life Is Beautiful (disambiguation).
"La vita è bella" redirects here. For other uses, see La vita è bella (disambiguation).
Life Is Beautiful

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Roberto Benigni
Produced by Gianluigi Braschi
Elda Ferri
Written by Roberto Benigni
Vincenzo Cerami
Starring Roberto Benigni
Nicoletta Braschi
Giorgio Cantarini
Giustino Durano
Horst Buchholz
Music by Nicola Piovani
Cinematography Tonino Delli Colli
Edited by Simona Paggi
Production
company
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release dates
  • 20 December 1997 (Italy)
  • 23 October 1998 (United States)
Running time
 116 minutes[1]
Country Italy
Language Italian
German
English
Budget $20 million[2]
Box office $229.2 million[3]

Life Is Beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella) is a 1997 Italian tragicomedy comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian book shop owner, who must employ his fertile imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. Part of the film came from Benigni's own family history; before Roberto's birth, his father had survived three years of internment at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

The film was a critical and financial success, winning Benigni the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 71st Academy Awards as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Plot

In 1939 Italy, Guido Orefice is a young Jewish man who is leaving his old life and going to the city where his uncle lives for work. Guido is comical and sharp, making the best from each situation he encounters. From the start he falls in love with a girl Dora. Later he sees her again in the city where she is a teacher. Dora is set to be engaged to a rich but arrogant man. He is a local government official with whom Guido has run-ins from the beginning. Guido is still in love with Dora and performs many stunts in order to see her. Guido sets up many "coincidental" incidents to show his interest. Finally Dora sees Guido's affection and promise and gives in against her better judgement. He steals her from her engagement party on a horse, humiliating her fiancé and mother. Soon they are married and have a son, Giosué. (Joshua in English.)

Through the first part, the film depicts the changing political climate in Italy: Guido frequently imitates members of the National Fascist Party, skewering their racist logic and pseudoscientific reasoning (at one point, jumping onto a table to demonstrate his "perfect Aryan bellybutton"). However, the growing Fascist wave is also evident: the horse Guido steals Dora away on has been painted green and covered in antisemitic insults. Later during World War II, after Dora and her mother have reconciled, Guido, his Uncle Eliseo and Giosué are seized on Giosué's birthday. They and many other Jews are forced onto a train and taken to a concentration camp.

In the camp, Guido hides their true situation from his son. Guido explains to Giosué that the camp is a complicated game in which he must perform the tasks Guido gives him. Giosué is at times reluctant to go along with the game, but Guido convinces him each time to continue on. Guido sets up the concentration camp as a game for Giosué. Each of the tasks will earn them points and whoever gets to one thousand points first will win a tank. He tells him that if he cries, complains that he wants his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the camp guards earn extra points. Guido uses this game to explain features of the concentration camp that would otherwise be frightening for a young child: the guards are mean only because they want the tank for themselves; the dwindling numbers of children (who are being killed in gas chambers) are only hiding in order to score more points than Giosué so they can win the game. He puts off Giosué's requests to end the game and return home by convincing him that they are in the lead for the tank, and need only wait a short while before they can return home with their tank.

Despite being surrounded by the misery, sickness, and death at the camp, Giosué does not question this fiction because of his father's convincing performance and his own innocence. Guido maintains this story right until the end when, in the chaos of shutting down the camp as the Americans approach, he tells his son to stay in a sweatbox until everybody has left, this being the final competition before the tank is his. As the camp is in chaos Guido goes off to find Dora, but while he is out he is caught by a German soldier. An officer makes the decision to execute Guido. Guido is led off by the soldier to be executed. While the soldier is leading him to his death, Guido passes by Giosué one last time, still in character and playing the game. The next morning, Giosué emerges from the sweatbox as the camp is occupied by an American armored division. Giosué thinks he has won the game because Guido had told him that whoever got to one thousand points would get a tank. The captives in the concentration camp emerge from hiding. The prisoners travel to safety, accompanied by the Americans. While they are traveling, the soldiers allow Giosué to ride on the front of the tank with them. Giosué soon spots Dora in the procession leaving the camp. Giosué and Dora are reunited and are extremely happy to see each other. In the film, Giosué is a young boy; however, both the beginning and ending of the film are narrated by an older Giosué recalling his father's story of sacrifice for his family.

Cast

Awards

Life is Beautiful was shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, and went on to win the Grand Prix.[4] At the 71st Academy Awards, the film won awards for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, and Best Foreign Language Film, with Benigni winning Best Actor for his role. The film also received Academy Award nominations for Directing, Film Editing, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture.[5]

Reception

Life is Beautiful became commercially successful. After Miramax Films released the film on 23 October 1998 in the United States, the film went on to gross $57,563,264 in North America, and $171,600,000 internationally, with a worldwide gross of $229,163,264.[3] It is the highest grossing movie to be made in Italy, and the second highest grossing foreign film in the United States.

The film also received mostly positive reviews, with the film aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a "Fresh" 80% rating.[6] Despite its acclaim, actor-director Roberto Benigni received criticism for its comedic elements incorporated into the backdrop of the Holocaust. Roger Ebert gave the film 3 1/2 stars, stating, "At Cannes, it offended some left-wing critics with its use of humor in connection with the Holocaust. What may be most offensive to both wings is its sidestepping of politics in favor of simple human ingenuity. The film finds the right notes to negotiate its delicate subject matter."[7]

Soundtrack

The original score to the film was composed by Nicola Piovani, with the exception of a classical piece which figures prominently: the "Barcarolle" by Jacques Offenbach. The soundtrack album won the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score and was nominated for a Grammy Award: "Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media", but lost to the score of A Bug's Life.

See also

Survivors
Further reading

References

  1. ↑ "LA VITA E BELLA (LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL) (12A)". Buena Vista International. British Board of Film Classification. 26 November 1998. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  2. ↑ Box Office Information for Life is Beautiful. The Wrap. Retrieved 4 April 2013
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Life is Beautiful Box Office Mojo Retrieved 28 December 2010
  4. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Life is Beautiful". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
  5. ↑ Life is Beautiful The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Retrieved 28 December 2010
  6. ↑ Life is Beautiful Rotten Tomatoes Retrieved 2010-12-28
  7. ↑ "Ebert". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 6 May 2013.

External links

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