The film was an overwhelming critical and commercial success. Despite some criticisms of using the subject matter for comedic purposes, it received widespread acclaim, with critics praising its story, performances and direction, and the union of drama and comedy. The movie grossed over $230 million worldwide, including $57.6 million in the United States, is the second-highest-grossing foreign-language film in the U.S. (afterCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)[4] and one of thehighest-grossing non-English-language movies of all time.[5] TheNational Board of Review included it in the top five best foreign films of 1998.[6]
In 1939, inFascist Italy, youngItalian Jew Guido Orefice arrives to work inArezzo,Tuscany, with his uncle Eliseo in a hotel restaurant. He is comical and sharp, and falls in love with the gentile girl Dora. Later, Guido sees her again in the city where she is a teacher and set to be engaged to Rodolfo, a rich but arrogant local government official with whom he regularly clashes. Guido sets up many "coincidental" incidents to show his interest in Dora.
Eventually, Dora gives in to Guido's affection and promise. Guido steals her from her engagement party on Uncle Eliseo's horse, Robin Hood, humiliating Dora's fiancé and mother. They are later married, have a son, Giosuè, and run a bookstore. Dora's mother visits once, meeting her grandson.
Part II
In 1944, at the height ofWorld War II,Nazi Germany occupiesNorthern Italy. Guido, his uncle Eliseo, and Giosuè are arrested on Giosuè's birthday. They and many other Italian Jews are forced onto a train bound for a concentration camp. After confronting a guard about her husband and son and being told there is no mistake, Dora insists on boarding the train to stay with her family.
However, as men and women are separated in the camp, Dora never sees her family during their internment. Guido pulls off various stunts, such as hijacking the camp's loudspeaker to send messages, symbolic or literal, to Dora to assure her that he and Giosuè are safe. Eliseo is murdered in agas chamber shortly after their arrival. Giosuè narrowly avoids being gassed himself as he hates to bathe, and did not follow the other children when they had been ordered to "take a shower".
Guido consistently hides the true situation from Giosuè. He convinces him that the camp is a complicated game in which he must perform the tasks given to him. Each task earns them points and whoever reaches one thousand points first wins a tank. He is told that if he cries, complains for his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the guards earn extra points. Giosuè is at times reluctant to go along with the game, but Guido continually encourages him.
One day, Guido takes advantage of the appearance of visiting German officers and their families to show Giosuè that other children are hiding as part of the game. Then he tricks a German nanny into thinking Giosuè is one of her charges to feed him while Guido serves the German officers. Giosuè must stay quiet at all times for this part of the game and simply follow the other children, as he cannot speak German.
Giosuè is almost exposed as a prisoner when he accidentally says "thank you" in Italian to another server at dinner. However, when the server returns with his superior, Guido provides a ruse by teaching all of the German children how to say "thank you" in Italian, saving Giosuè.
Guido maintains this story through the end when, in the chaos of shutting down the camp as theAllied forces approach, he tells his son to stay hidden until everybody has left, the final task in the competition before the promised tank is his.
Guido goes to find Dora but is caught by a German soldier. An officer orders his execution, so he is led off by the soldier. As he is walking to his death, Guido passes by Giosuè one last time and winks, still in character and playing the game. Guido is then shot dead in an alleyway.
The next morning, Giosuè emerges from hiding, just as a U.S. Army unit led by aSherman tank arrives and the camp is liberated. An overjoyed Giosuè, unaware of his father's death, believes he won the tank, and an American soldier allows him to ride with him on it.
Giosuè soon spots Dora in the procession leaving the camp and reunites with her. While the young Giosuè excitedly tells his mother about how he had won a tank, just as his father had promised, the movie's narrator reveals himself as the adult Giosuè, reminiscing on the sacrifices his father made for him.
Giustino Durano as Uncle Eliseo, an Italian-Jewishmaître, Giosuè's granduncle and Guido's uncle
Horst Buchholz as Doctor Lessing, a regular customer at Eliseo's restaurant who often tries to solve riddles when with Guido, later a doctor at the concentration camp
DirectorRoberto Benigni, who wrote the screenplay withVincenzo Cerami, was inspired by the story ofRubino Romeo Salmonì and his bookIn the End, I Beat Hitler, which incorporates elements of irony andblack comedy.[8] Salmoni was an Italian Jew who was deported to Auschwitz, survived and was reunited with his parents, but found his brothers were murdered. Benigni stated he wished to commemorate Salmoni as a man who wished to live in the right way.[9] He also based the story on that of his father Luigi Benigni, who was a member of theItalian Army after Italy became a co-belligerent of the Allies in 1943.[10] Luigi Benigni spent two years in a Nazi labour camp, and to avoid scaring his children, told about his experiences humorously, finding this helped him cope.[11] Roberto Benigni explained his philosophy, "to laugh and to cry comes from the same point of the soul, no? I'm a storyteller: the crux of the matter is to reach beauty, poetry, it doesn't matter if that is comedy or tragedy. They're the same if you reach the beauty."[12] The names of the protagonists are instead taken from Dora De Giovanni and Guido Vittoriano Basile, uncles of Nicoletta Braschi. Dora's life was turned upside down when Guido, arrested for his anti-fascist activity, died in theMauthausen concentration camp, a fate similar to that of the film's protagonist.[13]
Benigni's friends advised against making the film, as he is a comedian and not Jewish, and the Holocaust was not of interest to his established audience.[14] Because he isGentile, Benigni consulted with the Center for Documentation of Contemporary Judaism, based inMilan, throughout production.[15] Benigni incorporated historical inaccuracies in order to distinguish his story from the true Holocaust, about which he said only documentaries interviewing survivors could provide "the truth".[12]
In Italy, the film was released in 1997 by Cecchi Gori Distribuzione.[20] The film was screened in theCannes Film Festival in May 1998, where it was a late addition to the selection of films.[22] In the United States, it was released on 23 October 1998,[14] byMiramax Films with English subtitles.[23] In Germany, it was released on 12 November 1998. In Austria, it was released on 13 November 1998. In the United Kingdom, it was released on 12 February 1999.[12] After the English-subtitled version became a hit in English speaking territories, Miramax Films reissuedLife Is Beautiful in an English-dubbed version, but it was less successful than the subtitled Italian version.[24]
The film was aired on the Italian television stationRAI on 22 October 2001 and was viewed by 16 million people. This made it the most watched Italian film on Italian television.[25]
The film was also successful in the rest of the world, grossing $57.6 million in the United States and Canada and $123.8 million in other territories, for a worldwide gross of $230.1 million.[3] It surpassed fellow Italian filmIl Postino: The Postman as the highest-grossing foreign-language film in the United States untilCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).[28][29]
The film was praised by the Italian press, with Benigni treated as a "national hero."[15]Pope John Paul II, who received a private screening with Benigni, placed it in his top five favourite films.[15] It holds a "Fresh" 81% approval rating on review aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes, based on 94 reviews with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads: "Benigni's earnest charm, when not overstepping its bounds into the unnecessarily treacly, offers the possibility of hope in the face of unflinching horror".[30]Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[31]
Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5/4 stars, stating: "[According to Benigni] the movie has stirred up venomous opposition from the right wing in Italy [and at] Cannes, it offended some left-wing critics with its use ofhumor 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 ... The movie actually softens the Holocaust slightly, to make the humor possible at all. In the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. ButLife Is Beautiful is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit. It is about rescuing whatever is good and hopeful from the wreckage of dreams. About hope for the future. About the necessary human conviction, or delusion, that things will be better for our children than they are right now."[32] Michael Wilmington of theChicago Tribune gave the movie a score of 100/100, calling it: "A deeply moving blend of cold terror and rapturous hilarity. Lovingly crafted by Italy's top comedian and most popular filmmaker, it's that rare comedy that takes on a daring and ambitious subject and proves worthy of it."[33]
Richard Schickel, writing forTime, argued, "There are references to mass extermination, but that brutal reality is never vividly presented". He concluded that "even a hint of the truth about the Holocaust would crush [Benigni]'s comedy."[34]Owen Gleiberman ofEntertainment Weekly gave it a B−, calling it "undeniably some sort of feat—the first feel-good Holocaust weepie. It's been a long time coming." However, Glieberman stated: "There's only one problem. As shot, it looks like a game".[35] Michael O'Sullivan, writing forThe Washington Post, called it "sad, funny and haunting."[36]
Nell Minow ofCommon Sense Media gave it 5/5 stars, saying: "This magnificent film gives us a glimpse of the Holocaust, but it is really about love, and the indomitability of humanity even in the midst of inhumanity."[37]Janet Maslin wrote inThe New York Times that the film took "a colossal amount of gall" but "because Mr. Benigni can be heart-rending without a trace of the maudlin, it works."[23]Los Angeles Times'sKenneth Turan noted the film had "some furious opposition" at Cannes, but said "what is surprising about this unlikely film is that it succeeds as well as it does. Its sentiment is inescapable, but genuine poignancy and pathos are also present, and an overarching sincerity is visible too."[38]
David Rooney ofVariety said the film had "mixed results," with "surprising depth and poignancy" in Benigni's performance but "visually rather flat" camera work byTonino Delli Colli.[20] In 2002,BBC critic Tom Dawson wrote "the film is presumably intended as a tribute to the powers of imagination, innocence, and love in the most harrowing of circumstances," but "Benigni's sentimental fantasy diminishes the suffering of Holocaust victims."[39]
In 2006,Jewish American comedic filmmakerMel Brooks spoke negatively of the film inDer Spiegel, saying it trivialized the suffering in concentration camps.[40] By contrast, Nobel LaureateImre Kertész argued that those who take the film to be a comedy, rather than a tragedy, have missed the point of the film. He draws attention to what he terms 'Holocaust conformism' in cinema to rebuff detractors ofLife Is Beautiful.[41]
Israeli screenwriter, author and art critic Ḳobi Niv published the bookLife Is Beautiful, but Not for Jews (in 2000 in Hebrew and an English translation in 2003), in which he analyzed the movie from a highly critical perspective, suggesting that the film's underlining narrative is harmful for Jews.[42]
Another academic analysis of the movie was undertaken by Ilona Klein, who analyzes the film's success and refers to the "ambiguous themes hidden within." Klein suggests that one of the reasons the movie was so successful was its appeal of "sentimental optimism". At the same time, she points out that "Miramax's hype billed this film as a fable about 'love, family, and the power of imagination,' yet most Jewish victims of the Nazis' 'Final Solution' were loving, concerned, devoted parents. No amount of love, family, and power of imagination helped their children survive the gas chambers."[43]
David Sterritt ofThe Christian Science Monitor highlighted that "Enthusiasm for the movie has not been as unanimous as its ad campaign suggests, however, and audiences would do well to ponder its implicit attitudes." He pointed out that the movie implicitly suggests quick-witted confidence was a match for the terrors of fascist death camps, then added that "[Benigni's] fable ultimately obscures the human and historical events it sets out to illuminate."[44]
The movie received some criticism for the scene of theU.S. ArmySherman M4 tank coming to liberate the concentration camp, althoughAuschwitz was liberated by theRed Army; however, as stated by Benigni, the camp of the movie is not Auschwitz: "... Around the camp there are mountains, which in Auschwitz there are not. That is "the" concentration camp, because any camp contains the horror of Auschwitz, not one or another".[45][46]
Bullaro, Grace Russo (2005).Beyond "Life is Beautiful": Comedy and Tragedy in the Cinema of Roberto Benigni. Troubador Publishing Ltd.ISBN1-904744-83-4.
Norden, Martin F., ed. (2007).The Changing Face of Evil in Film and Television. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi.ISBN978-9042023246.
Perren, Alisa (2012).Indie, Inc.: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the 1990s. University of Texas Press.
Piper, Kerrie (2003).Life is Beautiful. Pascal Press.ISBN1741250307.
