Day #22 - Life is Beautiful

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799/

I am still pretty behind but I have a lot of GREAT movies coming my way so I think I can catch up :) Today I am watching Life is Beautiful - I have been avoiding this movie for a couple of weeks actually, trying to find a good "crying mood" day, since I know I'm going to. All I really know about this movie is from the Oscars...when Roberto Benigni stood up on his chair when he won Best Actor :)

This movie was soooo sweet. I didn't think anyone could make a comedy about the Holocaust, but Roberto Benigni did it - or as the Netflix description calls it, a "tragicomedy". Life is Beautiful, or La Vita a Bella, was written, directed by and starring Roberto Benigni - it is about a man, Guido, who is just full of life, who falls in love with a woman he calls "princess". They have a son, Joshua, who is SO ridiculously cute. When Joshua is five or so, the family starts experiencing firsthand the prejudice against Jews in Italy in the early 40's. One day, without warning, Guido and Joshua are rounded up with the other Jews and put on a train to a concentration camp. When Guido's wife finds out, she insists on being put on the train as well. The real plot of the movie at this point is how Guido helps Joshua cope with and understand what is going on around them. Because it is Joshua's birthday, Guido tells him he is taking him on a trip as a surprise - once they arrive at the camp, they are part of this "game" where they must collect points. Once they earn 1,000 points, they win a tank :) One of the best scenes in the movie is when a German officer comes into their sleeping quarters and asks that someone translate his German into Italian so that everyone can understand the rules. Guido immediatly volunteers, even though he doesn't know German, so that he can announce to his son the rules of the game, such as the three things you are not allowed to do - 1) ask for a snack, 2) cry or 3) ask for your mother. I won't say much beyond that - if you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it :)

Life is Beautiful won 3 Oscars - Best Actor, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Score. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Screenplay. Also, it won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes Film Festival. Here is a video of Roberto Benigni's winning the Best Foriegn Language Film Oscar...ok...so the embed isn't working, here is a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cTR6fk8frs

An excerpt from Roger Ebert's review.....

"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. But ``Life 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."