WEEK 4.4 ITALIAN'S FILM PRIDE - LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

Life is Beautiful, Dec 20, 1997, Directed by Roberto Benigni

Comment:

      A great film which I would give credit without hesitation. It takes a lot of guts to touch such heavy topic such as the Holocaust but Benigni succeed to attract the audiences with heavy value content but light and east storytelling. Basically the film is about a man who tries to protect his son eyes (innocent) by shelter him from the ugliness of the world. Guido has a Jewish ancestry, later on he was sent to concentration camp along with his son.

A scene from the concentration camp

During the period, he tried very hard to prevent from his son from finding the cruel truth of their situation. He try to avoid from speaking the truth by telling his son that they are playing games. This could have gone wrong but Benigni able to pull it off and used just the right amount of touch to pull this delicate balancing act off. The first 30 minutes of runtimes was rather uneven (comparing the amount of comedy while the end was utter dark and slumber), but I Think that's what makes it a great film. A great way to present and educate kids about the dark era. It may not as high production value as the other Hollywood blockbuster film but the film is highly well produced. A provoking and challenging film which I very reccommended.