FILM: Life is Beautiful dir. Roberto Benigni (1997)


Having watched the big Steven Spielberg Hollywood blockbuster about the holocaust, Schindler's List, I was much more moved by Benigni's attempt to show the courage and pain of the Jewish victims in his film, Life is Beautiful. The plot follows the Jewish character,Guido Orifici, as he attempts to woo his 'principessa', the beautiful Dora. She leaves her Aryan fascist fiancée for the amusing and loveable Guido, but just as they start to enjoy their life together, Italy becomes suffocated by the influence of Nazi power. Eventually Guido, along with their son, is captured and sent to Auschwitz. Despite her wealthy and influential background, Dora refuses to be left behind and demands a place on the death train beside them. When they reach Auschwitz, Guido desperately attempts to keep his son from being afraid by pretending that they are participating in a game to win a tank, rather than being held against their will. The references to the mass murder of the Jewish nation are all the more powerful through their subtlety: we are shown vans full of women driving off not to return, a group of old people and children undressing for the showers which cuts to the piles of empty clothes, and finally a smokey obscured image of the horrific pile up of corpses in the camp. The film is both beautiful and brutal and you will find yourself simultaneously laughing out loud and crying, captivated by Guido's touching attempts to keep his son safe and alive. It is a beautiful celebration of a father's love for his son and of the sacrifices and bravery that went on in order to liberate the surviving members of Auschwitz from the death camps.