La Vita è Bella (other)

''Life Is Beautiful'' (, ) is a 1997 Italian period comedy-drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote the film with Vincenzo Cerami. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, who employs his imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp. The film was partially inspired by the book ''In the End, I Beat Hitler'' by Rubino Romeo Salmonì and by Benigni's father, who spent two years in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during World War II.

The film was an overwhelming critical and commercial success. Despite some criticisms of using the subject matter for comedic purposes, it received widespread acclaim, with critics praising its story, performances and direction, and the union of drama and comedy. The movie grossed over $230 million worldwide, including $57.6 million in the United States, is the second highest-grossing foreign language film in the U.S. (after ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'') and one of the highest-grossing non-English language movies of all time. The National Board of Review included it in the top five best foreign films of 1998.

The movie won the Grand Prix at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, nine David di Donatello Awards (including Best Film), five Nastro d'Argento Awards in Italy, two European Film Awards, and three Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor for Benigni, the first for a male non-English performance.

Plot

; Part I
In 1939, in Fascist Italy, young Italian Jew Guido Orefice arrives to work in Arezzo, Tuscany, with his uncle Eliseo in a hotel restaurant. He is comical and sharp, and falls in love with the gentile girl Dora. Later, Guido sees her again in the city where she is a teacher and set to be engaged to Rodolfo, a rich but arrogant local government official with whom he regularly clashes. Guido sets up many "coincidental" incidents to show his interest in Dora.

Eventually, Dora gives in to Guido's affection and promise. Guido steals her from her engagement party on Uncle Eliseo's horse, Robin Hood, humiliating Dora's fiancé and mother. They are later married, have a son, Giosuè, and run a bookstore. Dora's mother visits once, meeting her grandson.

; Part II
In 1944, at the height of World War II, Nazi Germany occupies Northern Italy. Guido, his uncle Eliseo, and Giosuè are arrested on Giosuè's birthday. They and many other Italian Jews are forced onto a train bound for a concentration camp. After confronting a guard about her husband and son and being told there is no mistake, Dora insists on boarding the train to stay with her family.

However, as men and women are separated in the camp, Dora never sees her family during their internment. Guido pulls off various stunts, such as hijacking the camp's loudspeaker to send messages, symbolic or literal, to Dora to assure her that he and Giosuè are safe. Eliseo is murdered in a gas chamber shortly after their arrival. Giosuè narrowly avoids being gassed himself as he hates to bathe, and did not follow the other children when they had been ordered to "take a shower".

Guido consistently hides the true situation from Giosuè. He convinces him that the camp is a complicated game in which he must perform the tasks given to him. Each task earns them points and whoever reaches one thousand points first wins a tank. He is told that if he cries, complains for his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the guards earn extra points. Giosuè is at times reluctant to go along with the game, but Guido continually encourages him.

One day, Guido takes advantage of the appearance of visiting German officers and their families to show Giosuè that other children are hiding as part of the game. Then he tricks a German nanny into thinking Giosuè is one of her charges to feed him while Guido serves the German officers. Giosuè must stay quiet at all times for this part of the game and simply follow the other children, as he cannot speak German.

Giosuè is almost exposed as a prisoner when he accidentally says "thank you" in Italian to another server at dinner. However, when they return with his superior, Guido provides a ruse by teaching all of the German children how to say "thank you" in Italian, saving Giosuè.

Guido maintains this story through the end when, in the chaos of shutting down the camp as the Allied forces approach, he tells his son to stay hidden until everybody has left, the final task in the competition before the promised tank is his.

Guido goes to find Dora, but is caught by a German soldier. An officer orders his execution, so he is led off by the soldier. As he is walking to his death, Guido passes by Giosuè one last time and winks, still in character and playing the game. Guido is then shot dead in an alleyway.

The next morning, Giosuè emerges from hiding, just as a U.S. Army unit led by a Sherman tank arrives and the camp is liberated. An overjoyed Giosuè, unaware of his father's death, believes he won the tank, and an American soldier allows him to ride with him on it.

While traveling to safety, Giosuè soon spots Dora in the procession leaving the camp and reunites with her. While the young boy excitedly tells his mother about how he had won a tank, just as his father had promised. The adult Giosuè reveals himself to be the narrator, reminisces on the sacrifices his father made for him.

Cast

Production

Director Roberto Benigni, who wrote the screenplay with Vincenzo Cerami, was inspired by the story of Rubino Romeo Salmonì 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, but found his brothers were murdered. Benigni stated he wished to commemorate Salmoni as a man who wished to live in 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 of the Allies in 1943. Luigi Benigni spent two years in a Nazi labour camp, and to avoid scaring his children, told about his experiences humorously, finding this helped him cope. Roberto Benigni explained his philosophy, "to laugh and to cry comes from the same point of the soul, no? I'm a storyteller: the crux of the matter is to reach beauty, poetry, it doesn't matter if that is comedy or tragedy. They're the same if you reach the beauty." The names of the protagonists are instead taken from Dora De Giovanni and Guido Vittoriano Basile, uncles of Nicoletta Braschi; Basile, arrested for his anti-fascist activity, died in the Mauthausen concentration camp, a fate similar to that of the protagonist of the film of the same name, a fact that turned Dora's life upside down.

His friends advised against making the film, as he is a comedian and not Jewish, and the Holocaust was not of interest to his established audience. Because he is Gentile, Benigni consulted with the Center for Documentation of Contemporary Judaism, based in Milan, throughout production. Benigni incorporated historical inaccuracies in order to distinguish his story from the true Holocaust, about which he said only documentaries interviewing survivors could provide "the truth".

The film was shot in the ''centro storico'' (historic centre) of Arezzo, Tuscany. The scene where Benigni falls off a bicycle and lands on Nicoletta Braschi was shot in front of Badia delle Sante Flora e Lucilla in Arezzo. The concentration camp was set in an old abandoned factory near Papigno (Terni) that was converted into a concentration camp for filming. The "prize" tank is an M4 Sherman.

Music

The original score to the film was composed by Nicola Piovani, with the exception of a classical piece which figures prominently: the barcarolle "Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour" by Jacques Offenbach. The soundtrack album won the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

Release

In Italy, the film was released in 1997 by Cecchi Gori Distribuzione. The film was screened in the Cannes Film Festival in May 1998, where it was a late addition to the selection of films. In the United States, it was released on 23 October 1998, by Miramax Films. In Germany, it was released on 12 November 1998. In Austria, it was released on 13 November 1998. In the United Kingdom, it was released on 12 February 1999. After the Italian, English subtitled version became a hit in English speaking territories, Miramax Films reissued ''Life Is Beautiful'' in an English dubbed version, but it was less successful than the subtitled Italian version.

The film was aired on the Italian television station RAI on 22 October 2001 and was viewed by 16 million people. This made it the most watched Italian film on Italian television.

Reception

Box office

''Life Is Beautiful'' was commercially successful, making 92 billion  lire ($48.7 million) in Italy. It was the highest-grossing Italian film in its native country until 2011, when surpassed by Checco Zalone