Life is Beautiful

It’s hard not to think of Charlie Chaplin when watching Roberto Benigni at work in 1997’s Life is Beautiful. The motion picture is the ultimate expression of love and Benigni’s devotion to the piece jumps from the screen in every sequence, scene and moment. He also directed the movie, which went on to win the Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes and three Oscars including Best Actor for Benigni.

The Italian film is at times breathlessly comic and at other times incredibly emotional. The beauty is when Benigni effortlessly weaves the two together, creating a collage of the human experience that ventures through some of life’s brightest moments and some of life’s darkest. Benigni, one of Italy’s biggest stars, also co-wrote the movie with Vincenzo Cerami, making this the ultimate labour of love for the performer.

Benigni stars as Guido Orefice, a young Italian Jew arriving in 1930s Arezzo where he dreams of setting up a bookstore. He takes a job as a waiter and lives with his uncle Eliseo (Giustino Durano). Guido is incredibly upbeat and creative, using his wits and humour to get into and out of various tricky situations as he works and laughs his way through life. He romances Dora (Nicoletta Braschi) and most eventually steal her away from a rude fiancé.

Life is indeed very beautiful for Guido as he lives with Dora and ends up with a son, Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini). Things are changing, however, and the unthinkable occurs as Guido and his son, along with uncle Eliseo, are taken to a concentration camp. Dora, who isn’t Jewish, demands that she go along with her family and she winds up in the women’s section of the camp. Guido is desperate to ensure his son’s survival, so he uses his wit and humour to convince Joshua that the dreadful events are all a game.

Life is Beautiful is filled with outrageous sight gags, brilliant humour and a whole lot of good old-fashioned slapstick. Its second act shifts things to more serious circumstances, but this isn’t a sudden move and the motion picture never once feels as though it is forcing itself to “get serious” for the sake of things. There are little clues peppered throughout the first half, informing us that all might not be as it seems.

The world in which Guido and his family live is changing and evolving. Little signs are everywhere, such as the painting of a horse with green paint or the blathering of particular individuals about racial superiority. While played for laughs initially, it becomes more difficult to mock the racism of Italian scientists when things get closer to home. Throughout it all, however, Benigni’s Guido is focused on love and only love.

The underlying current for Life is Beautiful is that love and it never escapes, no matter how drastic things seem to get. The movie is the perfect fable of love and sacrifice, the ultimate tale of what family means and what a father will do to ensure the survival of his family. Guido’s son and wife comprise his entire world and Benigni’s rich tapestry never lets us forget it.

Amazingly but not surprisingly, Life is Beautiful stirred up a fair bit of criticism at the time of its release. Some were concerned that it was somehow making light of the Holocaust, while other groups attacked it for not taking a stronger stand. In the end, Benigni’s brilliance lies with the fact that he does take a stand and that he chooses love over politics and compassion over violence. There is nothing offensive about the love of a father for his son in the direst of circumstances.

Life is Beautiful is a modern classic. It is wonderfully acted and put together with care. Benigni’s motion picture is a treasure, brimming with the classic comedy of Chaplin (the number on Benigni’s prison camp uniform is the same number on Chaplin’s uniform in The Great Dictator) and the compassionate spirit that can never be staged or emulated.

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