Life is Beautiful

Life is Beautiful (La vita è bella in Italian) is a 1997 Italian drama film., written, directed and starring Roberto Benigni. The actors Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini and Giustino Durano completed the main cast, and the special participation of Marisa Paredes.

Benigni stars as Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookstore owner who must use his fertile imagination to protect his young son from the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. The story is partially based on the real experience of Rubino Romeo Salmoni, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who narrated his experience in a book entitled In the End I Defeated Hitler, and on the experience of Benigni's own father., who spent two years in a prison camp during World War II.

The film was an international commercial and critical success, being awarded several international awards, highlighting the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, nine David di Donatello in Italy and seven Oscar nominations, including Best Film, making it the sixth non-English language film to receive such a nomination, and also the second time that an Italian film has competed for the Oscar in the main category since Il Postino in 1995, as well as a Simultaneous nomination in the categories of Best Film and Best Foreign Film since Z in 1969, although in the end it would only win three statuettes, in the categories of Best Soundtrack, Best Actor and Best Foreign Film at the 1998 ceremony.

Plot

The film begins with a voiceover saying: This is a simple story, but it's not easy to tell. As in a fable, there is pain, and as in a fable, it is full of wonder and happiness.

In 1939, Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), a cheerful, funny and charismatic young Italian of Jewish origin, arrives at his uncle Eliseo's house in Arezzo to work as a waiter in his hotel. There he meets a young and beautiful teacher named Dora (Nicoletta Braschi, Roberto Benigni's real-life wife), with whom he immediately falls in love and does everything possible to win her over, calling her princess and greeting her happily with the phrase Good morning, princess! every time he sees her, even though it turns out that she is the fiancée of a local fascist official named Rodolfo.

The first half of the film shows the political change taking place in the country. Guido imitates the way Nazi soldiers walk and parodies his racist and pseudoscientific theories. One day, at the hotel where Guido works, a doctor arrives, Dr. Lessing (Horst Buchholz), who immediately becomes friends with him, since they are both fond of riddles and spend their time posing them to each other. When Rodolfo and Dora's engagement party is held at the hotel, Guido arrives and confesses her feelings for her. Dora, who has never been truly in love with Rodolfo, leaves with Guido on her horse. While all this is happening, the advance of fascism is more and more evident: Eliseo's business and his horse are frequently covered with graffiti and anti-Semitic messages.

Six years later, in 1945, Guido and Dora are married and have a son, named Giosuè (Giorgio Cantarini). Despite the war and the Nazi occupation of Italy, they are still happy. Guido opens a bookstore and Dora continues her work as a teacher. On Giosuè's birthday, Guido, Eliseo and Giosuè are arrested because of their Jewish origin and put on a train to a concentration camp. Although Dora is not Jewish, she also demands to get on the train to stay with her family, but when they arrive at the camp, the men and women are immediately separated and Eliseo and many others are sent directly to the gas chambers, since they were not consider useful for work. Guido hides from his son the terrible situation they are experiencing, making him believe that it is just a game in which they must earn points, and the first one to earn 1000 points will get a real tank. He also tells him that if he cries, asks for food or wants to see his mother, he will lose points, while if he hides from the camp guards he will gain extra points.

Guido uses this fantasy to justify the reality that surrounds them: the guards treat them badly because they want the tank for themselves and the dwindling number of children (who are being killed in the gas chambers) is because they are hidden to earn points. Guido manages to convince Giosuè not to want to leave by telling him that they are in the lead and they just need a little more time to get back home with the tank. Despite being surrounded by horror, sadness and death, Giosuè ends up believing everything thanks to the convincing story that his father tells him and his own innocence.

One day, Guido meets the doctor he met at the hotel, turned SS officer, who is choosing the prisoners to be sent to the gas chambers. Seeing Guido, he recognizes him and does not send him to the cameras, and makes him work as a waiter at a dinner that the military high command of the camp are going to celebrate. Guido shows his son that there are more children there, only that they are hidden, given the situation that he was already beginning to believe in the theory of harsh reality for spending whole days without seeing any children. At that moment, they call everyone to eat and by mistake they see Giosuè, having to pass the test of being silent throughout dinner so as not to be discovered as if it were just another test of the game. At one point during dinner, Guido has a talk with the doctor, who asks him a new riddle to help him solve, for which Guido is disappointed because he had believed that the doctor was going to help him and his family. to get out of the concentration camp alive.

One night there is a commotion in the camp: the Germans are retreating before the arrival of the Allies because the war is over, but they want to kill all the prisoners before the Allies release them. Guido orders Giosuè to hide until everything calms down, because "they are about to win the prize". Meanwhile, he goes looking for Dora to leave together, but is surprised and shot by one of the guards. The next morning, the Germans have fled and Giosuè comes out of hiding from him. Suddenly an M4 Sherman tank appears, which he thinks is his prize. It's the Americans, liberating the field. They pick him up and along the way, among the released prisoners, Giosuè finds his mother and tells her that they have won.

The voiceover at the beginning, which turns out to be that of an adult Giosuè, ends by saying: "This is my story. That is the sacrifice my father made. That was the gift he had for me."

Cast

• Roberto Benigni - Guido Orefice
• Nicoletta Braschi - Dora
• Giorgio Cantarini - Giosuè Orefice, son of Guido and Dora
• Giustino Durano - Eliseo Orefice, uncle of Guido
• Horst Buchholz - Dr. Lessing, Nazi doctor friend of Guido
• Sergio Bustric - Ferruccio Papini, friend of Guido
• Marisa Paredes - Mother of Dora
• Amerigo Fontani - Rodolfo, fascist promised Dora
• Pietro De Silva - Bartolomeo, fellow prisoner and friend of Guido
• Francesco Guzzo - Vittorino
• Raffaella Lebboroni - Elena
• Gil Baroni - Prefect
• Verena Buratti - German Assistant
• Aaron Craig - American Soldier
• Giuliana Lojodice - school director
• Alaïs - German Assistant
• Daniela Fedke - German Assistant
• Alessandra Grassi - Teacher
• Angelie Alaïs Adell - German Assistant
• Gina Rovere - Camarera de Dora
• Richard Sammel - German Officer
• Alfiero Falomi - King of Italy

Dubbing

Original Actor	Folding actor (Spain)	Bending actor (Hispanoamérica)	Character
Roberto Benigni	Jordi Brau	Salvador	Guido Orefice
Nicoletta Braschi	Concha Valero	Cony Madera	Dora
Giorgio Cantarini	Michelle Jenner	Alondra Hidalgo	Giosuè Orefice
Giustino Durano	Pepe Mediavilla	Esteban Siller	Uncle Eliseo Orefice
Amerigo Fontani	Juan Carlos Gustems	Alejandro Illescas	Rodolfo
Marisa Paredes	Marisa Paredes	Anabel Méndez	Mother of Dora
Sergio Bustric	Alberto Mieza	Salvador Delgado	Ferruccio Papini
Pietro De Silva	Paco Gázquez	Roberto Mendiola	Bartolomeo
Omero Antonutti	Juan Antonio Bernal	Carlos Becerril	Giosuè Orefice (adult)

Production

Director Roberto Benigni, who wrote the script with Vincenzo Cerami, was inspired by Rubino Romeo Salmonì's story and his book In the End, I Beat Hitler which incorporates elements of irony and black comedy. Salmoni was an Italian Jew who was deported to Auschwitz, survived and was reunited with his parents, only to discover that his brothers had been murdered. Benigni said he wanted to commemorate Salmoni as a man who wanted to live the right way. He also based the story on that of his father Luigi Benigni, who was a member of the Italian army after Italy became a co-belligerent with the Allies in 1943. Luigi Benigni spent two years in a Nazi concentration camp and, to avoid scaring his children, he recounted his experience with humor, and found that this helped him cope. Roberto Benigni explained his philosophy, & # 34; laughing and crying come from the same point of the soul, right? I am a storyteller: the fact of the matter is to arrive at beauty, at poetry, it does not matter if that is comedy or tragedy. They are the same if you get to beauty.”

His friends advised him not to make the film, as he is a comedian and a non-Jew, and the Holocaust was of no interest to his established audience. Because he is a Gentile, Benigni consulted with the Milan-based Center for Documentation of Contemporary Judaism throughout production. Benigni incorporated historical inaccuracies to distinguish his story from the real Holocaust, about which he said only documentaries interviewing survivors could provide "the truth."

The film was shot in the centro storico (historic center) of Arezzo Tuscany. The scene where Benigni falls off a bicycle and lands on Nicoletta Braschi was shot in front of the Badia delle Sante Flora e Lucilla in Arezzo.

Awards and nominations

Life is Beautiful premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and was awarded the Grand Prix by the jury. The award was given by the president of the jury, Martin Scorsese.

At the Oscars, Benigni won Best Actor for his performance. In addition, the film won two more awards at the same ceremony; for Best Soundtrack and Best Foreign Language Film Benigni jumped for joy when he received his first award and mentioned "This is a terrible mistake because I used up all my English! & # 34; (This is a terrible moment because I am going to use all my English language)

List of Awards