War-time fable a tale of sacrifice and humor
A
father convinces his young son that life in
a concentration camp is one big game.
 Life Is Beautiful, starring Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi and Giorgio Cantarini, is directed by Roberto Benigni. Rated PG-13 for holocaust-related thematic elements. |
By
Peter T. Chattaway
ChristianWeek film critic
Roberto Benigni sure likes to take risks. The Italian comedian, who sometimes writes and directs his own films, has a knack for setting his hijinks against deadly serious backdrops. In his previous efforts, he played buffoons who were mistaken for gangsters (Johnny Stecchino) and serial rapists (The Monster); the latter film in particular struck some as more than a little insensitive, and not very funny.
His newest comedy, Life Is Beautiful, is set partly in a Nazi concentration camp, and one might expect it to set off some pretty loud bad-taste alarms. But somehow, Benigni pulls it off, striking a rare and amazing balance between humor and tragedy that affirms the joys of being alive even as it conveys–in an admittedly watered-down form–the horrors that humans have visited upon one another.
The film has its nay-sayers, to be sure, but it has overcome them to win prizes at festivals from Cannes to Jerusalem. It recently made the Pope’s top-ten list (right behind Schindler’s List and Pasolini’s adaptation of The Gospel According to Saint Matthew), and it has been nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Foreign Film.
The first half of the film follows Guido Orefice (Benigni), a somewhat klutzy but always clever waiter, as he does what he can to win the love of a schoolteacher named Dora (Nicoletta Braschi) in the last days before World War II. Their blossoming romance has a complication or two–he’s Jewish, she’s engaged to a local fascist–but it’s a genuinely sweet affair that could easily have sustained a full-length movie on its own.
However, halfway through, the film jumps ahead to 1945, when Guido and Dora have a five-year-old son named Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini) and Italy is ruled by the Germans. Because Guido is Jewish, he and his family, including his uncle (Giustino Durano), are sent to a concentration camp.
Protects his son
Guido, hoping to protect his son from the horrors of the camp, convinces the boy that everything around them is one big game, and that there’s a prize waiting at the end for the boy who follows the rules and does not give in to the taunts of soldiers and other children–all of whom, of course, are said to want the prize for themselves.
The film is not as realistic as it could have been; in fact, it’s almost sanitized. It never really feels like Joshua is in any danger, and he moves about within the camp a bit too freely.
The question of deception, even when motivated by love, could also have been explored in further depth. Guido lies to his son with the best of intentions, but is that truly the best way to deal with the world’s brutality and indifference–to pretend it isn’t there?
In a nutshell–and you may want to skip this paragraph if you haven’t seen the film yet–I was very curious to see how Joshua would deal with the inevitable moment of his disillusionment, but it never came.
Benigni, however, turns in a remarkable performance, full of hope and desperation. In the beginning, Guido mercilessly, but ignorantly, lampoons the racism of his superiors; he recognizes the power of humor to expose the absurdities of bigotry and prejudice, yet he is unaware of how serious these things are about to become.
By the end, though, Guido’s attempts at levity require a form of courage that, reluctantly but successfully, he is able to muster. When Joshua hears rumors about Jews being turned into buttons and soap, Guido tries to laugh it off, but he knows the absurdities have become too painfully real. Even so, for his son’s sake, he puts on a brave face, and his sacrificial hope amid relentless hopelessness is downright inspirational–even if the film is, as its narrator suggests, only a fable.