La Vita é Bella (Life is Beautiful)
Guest post by Sarah Jorgensen
I’m honored to have been asked by Brian to write a review of one of my favorite, favorite movies: La Vita é Bella. Readers may remember it from the Academy Awards in 1998, when lead actor Roberto Benigni won Best Actor for his role as Guido Orefice. He got a little crazy at the podium (who doesn’t?) and everyone laughed when he made his speech ("Thank you! This is a moment of ajoy, This is awonderful to be ahere. I want to dive in this ocean of agenerosity. A hailstorm of akindness!" –IMDB.com). It also won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, and Best Foreign Language Film, as well as the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes in 1998.
The movie takes place in Italy during the Holocaust, with Benigni as Guido and Nicoletta Braschi as his wife, Dora. The movie begins with Guido meeting and courting Dora, with lots of slapstick physical humor that fits well with the 1940’s setting. Guido eventually steals Dora away from her pompous fiancé (more slapstick) and marries her. They have a son, Giosué, played by Giorgio Cantarini. Despite not having many lines, Giorgio is one of the best child actors I’ve seen. He’s adorable without being saccharine, and captures the role very well.
On Giosué’s birthday, he, Guido, and Guido’s uncle Eliseo (Giustino Durano) are picked up and put on the train to a concentration camp. Dora, realizing what happened, demands to be put on the train even though she is not Jewish, and (naturally) she is accommodated. In order to soothe his son, Guido explains that he has arranged the train ride especially for Giosué’s birthday, and that it’s all part of an elaborate game. For the rest of the movie, which takes place in the camp, Guido tries to protect his son by continuing this charade.
Because of the setting and topic, there has been lots of debate about the movie. Can you even say "Holocaust" without getting into a deep discussion? Some have argued that the movie "whitewashes" the events of that period by leaving out realistic pain and suffering. It’s certainly a different approach than, say, Schindler’s List. However, the tagline is "An unforgettable fable that proves love, family and imagination conquer all." A fable, clearly, doesn’t require the realism and gore of a documentary, action movie, or even a straight drama. This isn’t to say that there is no pain or sadness in La Vita é Bella; it manages to blend comedy and drama (Can I say dramady? Are people really saying that now?) into a lovely, tender story of a man and his family. It reminds me of another movie I recently saw, Pan’s Labyrinth, which is also a sort of magical realism/child’s fantasy/war movie.
I strongly recommend watching the movie in the original Italian (with subtitles if you need them) because it captures the rhythm and tone of the movie much better than English. And you don’t have to watch peoples’ mouths move out of sync with the words, which always makes me crazy. I further recommend not reading the Wikipedia article about this movie unless you want to have the ending spoiled. A final note, it’s said that the title of this movie came from a quote of Leon Trotsky:
Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
(Trotsky’s Diary in Exile-1935)
Guest post by Sarah Jorgensen
I’m honored to have been asked by Brian to write a review of one of my favorite, favorite movies: La Vita é Bella. Readers may remember it from the Academy Awards in 1998, when lead actor Roberto Benigni won Best Actor for his role as Guido Orefice. He got a little crazy at the podium (who doesn’t?) and everyone laughed when he made his speech ("Thank you! This is a moment of ajoy, This is awonderful to be ahere. I want to dive in this ocean of agenerosity. A hailstorm of akindness!" –IMDB.com). It also won Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, and Best Foreign Language Film, as well as the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes in 1998.
The movie takes place in Italy during the Holocaust, with Benigni as Guido and Nicoletta Braschi as his wife, Dora. The movie begins with Guido meeting and courting Dora, with lots of slapstick physical humor that fits well with the 1940’s setting. Guido eventually steals Dora away from her pompous fiancé (more slapstick) and marries her. They have a son, Giosué, played by Giorgio Cantarini. Despite not having many lines, Giorgio is one of the best child actors I’ve seen. He’s adorable without being saccharine, and captures the role very well.
On Giosué’s birthday, he, Guido, and Guido’s uncle Eliseo (Giustino Durano) are picked up and put on the train to a concentration camp. Dora, realizing what happened, demands to be put on the train even though she is not Jewish, and (naturally) she is accommodated. In order to soothe his son, Guido explains that he has arranged the train ride especially for Giosué’s birthday, and that it’s all part of an elaborate game. For the rest of the movie, which takes place in the camp, Guido tries to protect his son by continuing this charade.
Because of the setting and topic, there has been lots of debate about the movie. Can you even say "Holocaust" without getting into a deep discussion? Some have argued that the movie "whitewashes" the events of that period by leaving out realistic pain and suffering. It’s certainly a different approach than, say, Schindler’s List. However, the tagline is "An unforgettable fable that proves love, family and imagination conquer all." A fable, clearly, doesn’t require the realism and gore of a documentary, action movie, or even a straight drama. This isn’t to say that there is no pain or sadness in La Vita é Bella; it manages to blend comedy and drama (Can I say dramady? Are people really saying that now?) into a lovely, tender story of a man and his family. It reminds me of another movie I recently saw, Pan’s Labyrinth, which is also a sort of magical realism/child’s fantasy/war movie.
I strongly recommend watching the movie in the original Italian (with subtitles if you need them) because it captures the rhythm and tone of the movie much better than English. And you don’t have to watch peoples’ mouths move out of sync with the words, which always makes me crazy. I further recommend not reading the Wikipedia article about this movie unless you want to have the ending spoiled. A final note, it’s said that the title of this movie came from a quote of Leon Trotsky:
Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
(Trotsky’s Diary in Exile-1935)
5 out of 5 stars
Posts
i just watched yesterday for 4th or 4th time and i again cried my soul out. the best movie ever, i have to say. great article!
ReplyDelete